Learning from video modeling examples: does gender matter?

Vincent Hoogerheide,Tamara Van Gog,Sofie M M Loyens

doi:10.1007/s11251-015-9360-y

Vincent Hoogerheide, Tamara Van Gog + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-015-9360-y

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Abstract

Online learning from video modeling examples, in which a human model demonstrates and explains how to perform a learning task, is an effective instructional method that is increasingly used nowadays. However, model characteristics such as gender tend to differ across videos, and the model-observer similarity hypothesis suggests that such characteristics may affect learning. Therefore, this study investigated whether the effectiveness of learning how to solve a probability calculation problem from video modeling examples would vary as a function of the model’s and observer’s gender. In a 2 (Model: Female/Male) × 2 (Observer: Female/Male) between-subject design, 167 secondary education students learned how to solve probability calculation problems by observing video modeling examples. Results showed no effects of Model or Observer gender on learning and near transfer. Male students reported higher self-efficacy than female students. Compared to a female model, observing a male model enhanced perceived competence more from pretest to posttest, irrespective of observers’ gender. Furthermore, learning from a male model was less effortful and more enjoyable for male students than for female students. These results suggest that gender of both model and observer can matter in terms of affective variables experienced during learning, and that instructional designers may want to consider this when creating (online) learning environments with video modeling examples.

Highlights

Students of all ages and educational levels increasingly watch instructional videos for informal learning purposes online on websites such as YouTube and Google Videos, but such videos are increasingly used in formal learning (Lenhart 2012; Spires et al 2012)
Learning from a male model was less effortful and more enjoyable for male students than for female students. These results suggest that gender of both model and observer can matter in terms of affective variables experienced during learning, and that instructional designers may want to consider this when creating learning environments with video modeling examples
Effort invested in learning did not significantly correlate with how enjoyable watching the videos was, r = -0.17, p = .831, nor with the degree to which participants preferred to receive similar instruction in the future, r = -0.10, p = .204. This experiment investigated whether it would be more effective for secondary education students to study a video modeling example in which it was demonstrated how a math problem should be solved, with a same-gender model than an opposite gender model, as the model-observer similarity hypothesis would predict (Schunk 1987, 1991)

Summary

Introduction

Students of all ages and educational levels increasingly watch instructional videos for informal learning purposes online on websites such as YouTube and Google Videos, but such videos are increasingly used in formal learning (Lenhart 2012; Spires et al 2012). Research inspired by social-cognitive theories such as social learning theory (Bandura 1977, 1986) and cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al 1989) has demonstrated the effectiveness of acquiring problem-solving skills from these so-called video modeling examples in which a (human) model explains and/or demonstrates how to perform a task on video (e.g., Groenendijk et al 2013a, b; Hoogerheide et al 2014; Van Gog et al 2014). In addition to being effective for acquiring cognitive skills, observing video modeling examples has been shown to enhance affective variables, such as students’ belief in their own ability to perform the modeled task at a certain level (i.e., selfefficacy; Bandura 1997; Schunk 1987)

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