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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

The Minimal guided approach during instruction, also referred to as the constructivist

approach, can be critically discussed as to whether or not this is a road to failure, or can if it

can actually be a successful way to teach students and assist them in learning. There is much

dispute regarding the educational issue of minimal guidance, and the impact that

instructional and minimal guidance can have, as there are various outcomes that differ for

each individual. There are several recommendations addressed which have been assessed in

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s (2006) literature review, Why Minimal Guidance During

Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-

Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching, which will be further discussed throughout

this essay, and whether or not implementing these recommendations will positively impact

teaching practice in regards to the key learning area (KLA) of History. Human cognitive

architecture, expert-novice and cognitive load are significant parts of constructivism which

will be critically analysed along with other parts of constructivism such as characteristics and

functions regarding working and long-term memory, experiential learning, and problem-

based learning (PBL), which have also been addressed in this literature review, which will be

critically analysed in order to gain an in depth understanding on constructivism.

Human cognition has developed to assimilate, process and use information, or knowledge,

to direct human action. The educational issue of minimal guidance is a controversial issue

that can be further explored through human cognitive architecture, which is the idea of how

the structures of one’s working and long-term memory are organised. In regards to what

one remembers and how, it can be argued that many individuals learn best when they are in

a minimally instructed environment, as learners will discover or construct essential

information independently, instead of being presented with essential information by one in

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

charge, such as a teacher. The dominant structure of human cognition is understood as

long-term memory, where what one sees, hears, and thinks is critically dependant on and

influenced by long-term memory (Tobias and Duffy, p.13, 2009). The development of

exemplary strategies in targeted mainstream curriculum areas, such as, for example,

English, History, and Social Science is important so that students are able to understand a

great depth of concepts and procedures from being guided, rather than suffering in a

minimal guided environment. In a minimally guided environment, students learn to work

independently and can gain great confidence while doing this. They also become confident

in solving problems as they have understood how to construct their own solutions which

can lead to one of the most effective learning experiences. These strengths are examples of

why individuals learn best with minimal guidance. However, with evident research from

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s literature review, it is disputed that minimal guidance is in fact

ineffective, and constructivism has the ability to overwhelm students as they are expected

to guide their selves. Another weakness with minimal guidance includes the lack of direction

students have, especially those who do not speak English, and have English as a Second

Language (ESL). These students would include refugee students, who are attempting to

understand content, however, cannot due to the lack of instruction. Refugee students with

ESL will struggle with cognitive overload as they do not have experience with the content,

concepts or procedures, causing them to suffer tremendously, opposed to those more

experienced. They will lack the guidance they need to be able to grasp an understanding,

which shows that guidance and instruction is needed. Refugee students would be

considered as novice learners, whereas other students with more knowledge would be

referred to as experts.

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

Experts can be defined as individuals who have a great understanding and the ability to

comprehend and contribute to the language and methodology of the discipline.

Performance as an expert becomes more automatic, as their long-term memory contributes

to their knowledge and how they are able to quickly grasp understandings due to previous

experience in situations. As a result, experts immediately understand critical aspects of

situations given to them, such as a minimal guided environment, and would be able to work

independently. Novices on the other hand, are quite the opposite as they do not have the

same attributes as experts due to limited or no experience in situations which as a result,

causes their performance to be inflexible and limited as they lack an in depth understanding

due to lack of experience, as summarised by Ross, Phillips, Klein and Cohn (2005). Therefore,

experts and novices differ drastically in various ways. According to Ross et al. (2005), some

differences identified through research that experts are capable of that novices are not

include the following; noticing patterns and characteristics of information which is not seen

by novices, spending more time analysing a situation and less time deliberating what action

to take, having better metacognitive skills enabling them to monitor their own performance,

and, detecting problems and spotting atypicicalities as a situation progresses. This evidently

explains how experts and novices differ, and why it is important that novices should be

provided with direct instructional guidance on the concepts and procedures required by a

particular discipline, and should not be left to discover those procedures on their own. It is

also important to understand that novices may not only include refugee students, it could

be any students that are behind and struggling due to lack of direction. Therefore, minimal

guidance is ineffective, and direction is necessary so that students are able to grasp an in

depth understanding of concepts and procedures with the help of direction. Otherwise,

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

students will suffer consequences such as cognitive overload, due to of lack of direction,

resulting to unfair opportunity to reach their full potential.

Recommending minimal guidance was understandable before human cognition was

discovered; however, now that the discovery of learning as an instructional tool is

understood, it is unclear why some believe that minimal guided can be successful as it has

been proven to be ineffective. According to Kirschner, et al (2006), strong evidence has

shown that when students learn with minimal guidance, and minimal feedback, they

become frustrated and disengaged, resulting to them not doing their work (Hardiman,

Pollastek, and Weil, 1968; Brown, 1994). However, when provided with extensive feedback,

and direction, or, guidance, during instruction, they become deeply engaged and learn

more. Therefore, it is evidently shown through strong research that minimal guidance is

ineffective and will result to less work being done – less guidance, less work.

Recommendations that advocate minimal guidance during instruction are poor as it is

ineffective. Cognitive overload is therefore diminished as instruction allows cognitive

overload to no longer be an issue. Worked examples and process worksheets are also ways

in which research has determined whether or not minimal guidance is effective, with

outcomes showing that both these activities result to the conclusion that students showed

superior quality of learning when guided and instructed, opposed to those who received

minimal guidance. Minimally guided instruction appears to proceed with no reference to the

characteristics of working memory, long-term memory, or the intricate relations between

them. This is a series of recommendations that most educators find almost impossible to

implement as it requires learners to engage in cognitive activities which are unlikely to

result in effective learning.

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

The following is a section from History lesson plan:

As shown above, the time from 20-25 minutes gives a total of five minutes to complete this

Concept Map Classroom activity. Five minutes to do this concept map classroom activity is

not a sufficient amount of time for students to grasp an in depth understanding of this

classroom activity. It is clear that cognitive overload would occur for English speaking

students, and have an immense effect on non-English speaking students. Less guided

approaches fail to explain content to students, which also reflects on the lack of pedagogical

skill a teacher may have. Therefore, the lesson plan must be modified so that all students

have equal opportunity to grasp an understanding. In order to improve this lesson plan,

time management is crucial and essential. Allowing more time, such as fifteen minutes to do

this would be appropriate. That way, the ‘Words that should be included” will not be

rushed, as it would be in the original five minutes. Giving definitions of these words would

also be essential, so that students not only learn the words, but learn the further

understanding of what these words mean which relate to the topic being learned, Ancient

Egypt. These words are likely to be stored in students’ long-term memory, whereas the

definitions will be part of their working memory. For students struggling, such as refugee

students who have ESL, a holistic approach could also have an effective impact. For

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

example, bringing in props regarding the topic of Ancient History, so they can physically

touch and feel objects is another way of assisting them in learning which will also positively

reflect their long-term memory and allow them to remember and learn the content. Giving

feedback will also help improve students and whether or not they choose to stay engaged,

as feedback has the ability to indicate a student’s success (Moran and Malott, p.367, 2004).

Asking questions is also important as it allows students to interact with each other, and with

the teacher, allowing them to pursue investigation (Orlich et al, p.292, 2018)It is clear that

through this modification, recommendations discussed above which are explained

throughout the literature review written by Kirschner et al (2006), have been implemented,

as minimal guidance is ineffective, and guidance during instruction is what is needed for

students, refugee or not, to grasp an in depth understanding on content, concepts and

procedures whilst learning.

In regards to the literature review written by Kirschner et al (2006), it was quite shambolic

as there was no clear inscription of what recommendations were, there were no evidence of

methods that occurred and there were parts all over the place, making it difficult to read,

and difficult to understand. This article does argue that minimal guidance during instruction

is in fact a road to failure, which is evidently shown to be true; however, there were many

statements made without evidence to back up the claim. Overall, the article did provide

some great evidence, some of which I was able to cite due to the relevance.

To conclude, it is clearly evident that the minimal guided approach during instruction is

ineffective, and students must receive guidance during instruction so that they can grasp an

in depth understanding of content, concepts and procedures. The impact instructional

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

guidance has on students is significant, as it allows them to understand without cognitive

overload. Regardless of whether or not a student is an expert or novice, they should feel

that they will receive the guidance and instruction they need in order to not only learn, but

understand. The modified lesson plan shows recommendations that have been put into

place to allow students to further understand, opposed to the original lesson plan. The

original lesson plan did not have a sufficient, or appropriate time frame for the activity, and

it is important that when teaching content, the information to be learned is not rushed, so

that it can assist in being stored in a students’ long-term memory. The modifications are

therefore better than the minimal guidance that was provided in the original lesson plan, as

students receive further information that allows an in depth understanding, which is always

much more effective than minimal guidance during instruction.

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Researching Teaching & Learning (102096) Gabriella Talarico (17992262)

References:

Brown, A., & Campione, J. (1994). Guided discovery in a community of learners. In K. McGilly (Ed.),
Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 229–270).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.].

Hardiman, P., Pollatsek, A., & Weil, A. (1986). Learning to understand the balance beam. Cognition
and Instruction, 3, 1–30.

Kirschner, P., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. (2006). Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not
Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential,
and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86. doi:
10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1.

Moran, D., & Malott, R. (2004). Evidence-based educational methods. San Diego, CA: Elsevier
Academic Press

Orlich, D., Harder, R., Brown, A., Trevisan, M., & Miller, D. Teaching strategies.

Ross, K. G., Phillips, J. K., Klein, G., & Cohn, J. (2005). Creating expertise: A framework to guide
technology-based training. (Final Technical Report for Contract #M67854-04-C-8035 for the
Marine Corps Systems Command/Program Manager for Training Systems). Fairborn, OH:
Klein Associates.

Tobias, S., & Duffy, T. (2009). Constructivist theory applied to instruction. London: Routledge.

(2018). Retrieved from


https://vuws.westernsydney.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_i
d=_25061_1&content_id=_3257046_1.

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