Task complexity
Overview
- Influence: Task complexity
- Domain: Teaching Strategies
- Sub-Domain: Learning intentions
- Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
- Influence Definition: Task complexity relates the number of levels of cognitive processing, the tasks involved in the lesson, and the amount of switching between surface and deeper ideas, or skills of students to be cognitively complex
Evidence
- Number of meta-analyses: 3
- Number of studies: 331
- Number of students: 2,845
- Number of effects: 352
- Weighted mean effect size: 0.62
- Robustness index: 3
Meta-Analyses
| Journal Title | Author | Article Name | Year Published | Variable | Number of Studies | Number of Students | Number of Effects | Effect Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language Learning | Jackson & Suethanapornkul | The cognition hypotheses: A synthesis and meta-analysis of research on second language task complexity. | 2013 | Increasing task complexity | 17 | NA | 99 | 0.09 | |
| Human Performance | Woznyj, Banks, Dunn, Berka, & Woehr | Re-introducing cognitive complexity: A meta-analysis and agenda for future research. | 2020 | Complexity of achievement and work outcomes | 74 | 2,845 | 13 | 0.39 | |
| Conference paper | Norris, Sasayama, & Malicka | Meta-analysis of task complexity effects on L2 performance: Implications for assessment. Germany. European Association for Language Testing | 2018 | Increasing complexity, reducing extraneous load | 240 | NA | 240 | 0.73 | |
| TOTAL/AVERAGE | 331 | 2,845 | 352 | 0.40 | |||||