Teaching Causal Reasoning Through Cognitive Apprenticeship: What Are Results From Situated Learning?

Abstract

The author investigated whether situated instruction produces more usable, transferable knowledge than instruction that is abstracted from the context of its use. To test that theory, 220 Grade 7 students were instructed on the topic of causality. Half the students were taught how to determine whether a research study shows a cause-and-effect relationship under the situated-learning model. The remaining students were taught the same concept under the abstracted instruction model. An additional factor, teaching for transfer, also was investigated. Although there were significant differences in learning immediately following instruction, there were no differences on the transfer task due to instructional condition or transfer training. Of the 194 participants who completed the transfer task, only 2 students spontaneously transferred their learning.

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