Reducing Cognitive Load in Learning by Analogy

Abstract

The ability to draw connections between concepts, problems, or representations is crucial to mathematicalproficiency, though teachers face challenges in capitalizing on classroom opportunities to develop suchconnected thinking. An experiment with fifth-grade students tests theoretically grounded cuing strategies forsupporting learning from instructional analogies. Posttest results indicate that an analogy between division ofnatural numbers and rational numbers improved students’ proficiency in dividing fractions regardless of theaddition of analogical cuing strategies, but that the additional cuing led to more conceptual, flexible problemsolving. These cuing strategies may be effective ways to enhance students’ ability to draw connections acrossmathematics and capitalize on classroom learning opportunities.