Abstract
The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of self-generation in inquiry-based learning and to identify the role of feedback. While open-ended inquiry-based learning with a high degree of self-generation requirements has long been considered optimal for facilitating effective learning, its long-run effects have been critically challenged. This study employed a 3 (learning condition) × 2 (retention interval) mixed factorial design (N = 98). An inquiry activity involving the self-generation of content knowledge with or without subsequent feedback was compared to an inquiry task in which students simply read hypotheses and data interpretations. Self-generation without feedback was subject to rereading and self-generation with feedback. However, no differences were found under the two latter conditions. An additional analysis of individual learners’ abilities revealed that different abilities (e.g., cognitive load, self-generation success) served as predictors of performance in the disparate treatments.
Highlights
Inquiry-based learning is an activity-oriented, student-centered, and collaborative learning approach in which students generate new knowledge by employing an idealized hypothetico-deductive method [1]
While direct instruction advocates argue that discovery methods like inquiry restrict long-term retention and overstrain human working memory by increasing cognitive load [2,3], their opponents state that open-ended instructional methods promote deeper learning and understanding through their own exploration [1,4]
The findings reveal that students with a lower error rate during learning in the generation condition, and higher self-generation success, exhibit better long-term learning outcomes than students in the reading condition with comparable grades within the same school type
Summary
Inquiry-based learning is an activity-oriented, student-centered, and collaborative learning approach in which students generate new knowledge by employing an idealized hypothetico-deductive method [1]. While direct instruction advocates argue that discovery methods like inquiry restrict long-term retention and overstrain human working memory by increasing cognitive load [2,3], their opponents state that open-ended instructional methods promote deeper learning and understanding through their own exploration [1,4]. The component of (self-) generation of knowledge represents a key factor in this debate. Whereas many laboratory studies have shown that simple actively generated information is retrieved more successfully than passively learned information, effects on complex content knowledge acquired in a natural learning environment like inquiry remain unclear [9]
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