Worked Examples and Tutored Problem Solving: Redundant or Synergistic Forms of Support?

Abstract

Tutored problem solving with automated tutors has proven to be an effective instructional method. Worked-out examples have been shown to be an effective complement to untutored problem solving, but it is largely unknown whether they are an effective complement to tutored problem solving. Further, while computer-based learning environments offer the possibility of adaptively transitioning from examples to problems while tailoring to an individual learner, the effectiveness of such machine-adapted example fading is largely unstudied. To address these issues, two studies were conducted which compared a standard Cognitive Tutor with two example-enhanced Cognitive Tutors. The results indicate that adaptively fading worked-out examples leads to the highest transfer performance on delayed post-tests compared to the other two methods.