Worked examples
Overview
- Influence: Worked examples
- Domain: Teaching Strategies
- Sub-Domain: Success criteria
- Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Likely to have positive impact
- Influence Definition: A worked example is a problem statement with step-by-step guidelines for finding the solution. Based on the assumption that human beings have limited working memory, worked examples enable students to focus on discrete problem-solving tasks, rather than attempting to hold each of the steps in their working memory while solving a complex problem. In a “faded solutions” variant of the worked example, subsequent problem statements have fewer and fewer instructions until the student is able to complete the complex problem-solving task without the assistance of step-by-step guidelines.
Evidence
- Number of meta-analyses: 2
- Number of studies: 83
- Number of students: 3,324
- Number of effects: 179
- Effect size: 0.37
Meta-Analyses
Journal Title | Author | First Author's Country | Article Name | Year Published | Variable | Number of Studies | Number of Students | Number of Effects | Effect Size |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unpublished Thesis | Crissman | USA | The Design and Utilization of Effective Worked Examples: A Meta-Analysis | 2006 | Worked examples on achievement | 62 | 3,324 | 151 | 0.57 |
Educational Psychology Review | Wittwer & Renkl | Germany | How effective are instructional explanations in example-based learning? A meta-analytic review | 2010 | Worked examples on achievement | 21 | 0 | 28 | 0.16 |
TOTAL/AVERAGE | 83 | 3,324 | 179 | 0.37 |
Confidence
The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:
-
Number of Meta-analyses
- 1 = 1
- 2 = 2–3
- 3 = 4–6
- 4 = 7–9
- 5 = 10+
-
Number of Studies
- 1 = 1–10
- 2 = 11–50
- 3 = 51–200
- 4 = 201–400
- 5 = 400+
-
Number of Students
- 1 = 1–2,500
- 2 = 2,501–10,000
- 3 = 10,000–20,000
- 4 = 20,000–100,000
- 5 = 100,001+
-
Number of Effects
- 1 = 1–100
- 2 = 101–300
- 3 = 301–600
- 4 = 601–1,200
- 5 = 1,200+
Number of Meta-Analyses | Number of Studies | Number of Students | Number of Effects | Overall Confidence | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Confidence Factor | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |