Tutoring: Guided Learning by Doing

Merrill, Douglas C.; Reiser, Brian J.; Merrill, Shannon K.; Landes, Shari

doi:10.1207/s1532690xci1303_1

Cited by 96 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Additionally, researchers have argued that the exercise of evaluative skills may provide opportunities for deeper conceptual understanding of domain principles. As Merrill, Reiser, Merrill, and Landes (1995) have theorized, errors provide an opportunity to develop a better model of the behavior of operators in a domain. Error recovery requires that students construct explanations about the causes and consequences of errors and act on their analyses.…”

Section: Delayed Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering the Intelligent Novice: Learning From Errors With Metacognitive Tutoring

Mathan¹,

Koedinger²

2005

Educational Psychologist

139

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This article explores 2 important aspects of metacognition: (a) how students monitor their ongoing performance to detect and correct errors and (b) how students reflect on those errors to learn from them. Although many instructional theories have advocated providing students with immediate feedback on errors, some researchers have argued that immediate feedback eliminates the opportunity for students to practice monitoring for and learning from errors. Thus, they advocate delayed feedback. This article provides evidence that this line of reason is flawed and suggests that rather than focusing on the timing of feedback, instructional designers should focus on the "model of desired performance" with respect to which feedback is provided. Instead of delaying feedback, we suggest broadening our model of correct behavior or desired performance to include some kinds of incorrect, but reasonable behaviors. This article explores the effects of providing feedback on the basis of a so-called intelligent novice cognitive model. A system based on an intelligent novice model allows students to make certain reasonable errors, and provides guidance through the exercise of error detection and correction skills. There are two pedagogical motivations for feedback based on an intelligent novice model. First, jobs today not only require ready-made expertise for dealing with known problems, but also intelligence to address novel situation where nominal experts are thrown back to the state of a novice. Second, the opportunity to reason about the causes and consequences of errors may allow students to form a better model of the behavior of domain operators. Results show that students receiving intelligent novice feedback acquire a deeper conceptual understanding of domain principles and demonstrate better transfer and retention of skills over time.

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Section: Delayed Feedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering the Intelligent Novice: Learning From Errors With Metacognitive Tutoring

Mathan¹,

Koedinger²

2005

Educational Psychologist

139

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“…38 According to Merrill et al, one of the essential advantages of individualized instruction is keeping students on "promising solution paths." 39 This echoes Rettig' s assertion that the librarian should "bring the user as expeditiously as possible to the judgment junctures"; for example, the points where only the user can determine whether or not a fact or an information source is relevant. 40 According to Nahl-Jacobovits and Jacobovits, students need assistance in breaking the research process up into steps, each with a specific motivation, that build upon each other to lead students toward the ultimate goal of completing the research project.…”

Section: Self-regulated Learning and The Reference Tutorialmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Merrill et al define tutoring as "guided learning by doing," a collaborative effort in which the tutor assists the student in identifying and recovering from errors, as well as confirming when the student has demonstrated a productive solution to a problem. 37 Graesser, Person, and Magliano emphasize the uniquely collaborative nature of the tutor and student interaction, noting that in the process of correcting student errors, "the tutor and student are jointly constructing a connected structure of ideas when the errors occur." 38 According to Merrill et al, one of the essential advantages of individualized instruction is keeping students on "promising solution paths."…”

Section: Self-regulated Learning and The Reference Tutorialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning at the Reference Desk

Eckel¹

2007

Reference &Amp; User Services Quarterly

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T hose who assist undergraduates at the reference desk know how tempting it can be, especially under time pressure, to find sources or perform online database searches for them. At the same time, reference librarians are likely to spend a significant number of classroom hours each week teaching undergraduates how to find, evaluate, and use information.1 The question arises: is it logical or effective for librarians to instruct students in information literacy if they then undermine that instruction at the reference desk?The independent research skills that are an integral part of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education have a great deal in common with the educational concept of self-regulated learning.2 A self-regulating researcher is able to formulate a research plan as well as monitor and control progress toward the completion of the research.3 Furthermore, this self-regulation is an essential aspect of information literacy that is short-changed when librarians, with the best of intentions, insist on finding answers for students.This article focuses on the one-on-one nature of reference interactions, and how they relate to tutoring interactions. It argues that, in approaching reference interactions as tutorial interactions, librarians can scaffold the self-regulation of student researchers and thereby more effectively support their emerging information literacy. REFERENCE SERVICE: TO TEACh OR NOT TO TEAChTwo contradictory views regarding the function of library reference services commonly surface in the library literature. This dichotomy was essentially expressed more than forty years ago in the title of Anita R. Schiller' s 1965 article "Reference Service: Instruction or Information."4 Schiller argues that librarians should focus on "providing direct answers to questions" and that instructing users at the reference desk confuses them with regard to what service they may expect. 5Schiller also appears to blame librarians' self-defined instructional role for the inability of patrons to voice their information needs.6 (This argument is effectively refuted by several subsequent articles and studies that show that the inability to articulate an information need is common at the beginning of the information search process.

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“…If learners are assisted in the task but are not able to understand or take advantage of the experience, the assistance will have been local to that instance of scaffolding, but will not have provided support for learning. Thus, scaffolding entails a delicate negotiation between providing support while continuing to engage the learner actively in the process (Merrill, Reiser, Merrill, & Landes, 1995).…”

Section: Traditional Approaches To Scaffoldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why scaffolding should sometimes make tasks more difficult for learners

Reiser¹

2002

Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning Foundations for a CSCL Community - CSCL '02

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There has been much interest in using software tools to scaffold learners in complex tasks, that is, to provide supports that enable students to deal with more complex content and skill demands than they could otherwise handle. Many different approaches to scaffolding techniques have been presented in a broad range of software tools. I discuss two mechanisms to explain how software tools can scaffold learners. Software tools can help structure the learning task, guiding learners through key components and supporting their planning and performance. In addition, tools can shape students' performance and understanding of the task in terms of key disciplinary content and strategies, thereby problematizing this important content. While making the task more difficult in the short term, by forcing learners to address these ideas, such scaffolded tools make this work more productive opportunities for learning.

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Tutoring: Guided Learning by Doing

Cited by 96 publications

References 40 publications

Fostering the Intelligent Novice: Learning From Errors With Metacognitive Tutoring

Fostering the Intelligent Novice: Learning From Errors With Metacognitive Tutoring

Fostering Self-Regulated Learning at the Reference Desk

Why scaffolding should sometimes make tasks more difficult for learners

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