Why Minimally Guided Teaching Techniques Do Not Work: A Reply to Commentaries

By John Sweller, Paul A. Kirschner, Richard E. Clark. 2007

408 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this reply to commentaries on the Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) paper, we not only reemphasize the importance of randomized, controlled experimental tests of competing instructional procedures, but also indicate that altering one variable at a time is an essential feature of a properly controlled experiment. Furthermore, we also emphasize that variable must be relevant to the issue at hand with its effects explainable by our knowledge of human cognitive architecture. We reject the view that the presentation of relevant information should be reduced in favor of teaching learners how to find information. Lastly, we indicate that we believe a new educational psychology has been developed that has the potential to rapidly change our field.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ab52c79720ebabef2357cc024115a187e11be881

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Citations in the corpus

Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction (2011, background): “Table 8.1 Features and Cues for Throwing (adopted from Knudson & Morrison, 1996)”
An exploration of social networking site use, multitasking, and academic performance among United States and European university students (2013, background): “Research has noted that people assume that they are ‘‘good at’’ multitasking without loss of efficiency or effectiveness (Kirschner et al., 2006; Sweller et al., 2007), but in reality, switching between tasks leads to poorer learning results and performance on tasks when compared to carrying out…”
From Cognitive Load Theory to Collaborative Cognitive Load Theory (2018, background): “Unlike primary knowledge and skills, explicit instruction is important when dealing with secondary knowledge and skills (Kirschner et al. 2006; Sweller et al. 2007).”
Does Discovery-Based Instruction Enhance Learning?. (2011, methodology): “It might also reduce the cognitive demands of discovery learning tasks and make such methods more easily employed (a concern raised by Kirschner et al., 2006; Sweller, Kirschner, & Clark, 2007 ).”
Evolving Kolb (2015, background): “Sweller, Kirschner, and Clark (2007) specifically reject Kolb’s theoretical foundation, arguing from psychobiological evidence that “we have not evolved to effortlessly acquire the biologically secondary knowledge . . . that are characteristically taught in educational institutions.”
Example-Based Learning in Heuristic Domains: A Cognitive Load Theory Account (2009, background): “For novice learners, CLT argues that information should be directly provided instead of having learners determine it (e.g., Kirschner et al. 2006; Sweller et al. 2007 ).”