Excluding Seductive Details From Case-Based Instructional Narratives to Increase Novice Teacher Education Students’ Learning Transfer

• In Event: Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: Cognitive Processes and Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

Seductive details are interesting details extraneous to learning objectives, and have been shown to negatively affect learning in expository texts. This study tests the seductive details effect when learning from case-narrative text. Prospective teachers learned about teaching principles on how to provide effective written feedback to students, and then either engaged in a tradition review activity (C) or a case-based review activity that either contained (SD) or didn’t contain seductive details (NSD). Results indicated that while there was little difference between groups on recall, those in the NSD group were better able to apply the learning material to a transfer task. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Author

• Sara A. Abercrombie, Bowling Green State University