Effects of a Struggling Model on Self-Efficacy, Science Learning, and Transfer

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Research on Innovations in Learning Technologies

Abstract

Scientific expertise requires concerted efforts and the ability to overcome struggles, but little research has addressed how these behaviors are modeled for learners. Using cognitive modeling as an instructional aide, the present study examines whether a model that demonstrates struggles improves students’ perceived competence and learning in a simulation-based science discovery environment. Students were assigned to either a struggling model (STR) condition, where the model demonstrated initial difficulties but overcame them, or a non-struggling model (NS) condition, where the model presented an error-free process of interpreting information. Findings suggest that students in the STR condition learned more and transferred better than students in the NS condition. Unlike our hypothesis, however, students’ self-efficacy did not increase.

Authors

• Ahram Choi, Teachers College, Columbia University

• John B. Black, Teachers College, Columbia University