Supporting the acquisition of principle-based cognitive skills in physics: The interplay of guided discovery, interleaved study, and cooperative learning

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Students’ acquisition of complex scientific concepts requires the comprehension of the underlying principles as well as intensive practice. In the school context, these two goals necessitate the combination of various learning phases in which favorable learning processes are effectively supported through appropriate instructional implementation. To promote lasting learning of principle-based concepts in physics, the present proposal addresses two desirable difficulties. The first learning phase focuses on generating physical laws through guided discovery, whereas the subsequent second learning phase focuses on interleaved learning with the goal of practicing and discriminating similar concepts. In addition, the potential benefits of student cooperation on the effectiveness of both desirable difficulties will be investigated. Accordingly, the interaction of cooperative (vs. individual) learning with both guided discovery (vs. instructional explanation; study 1) as well as interleaving (vs. blocked study; study 2) will be analyzed. The research project is based on important topics for 12th grade physics classes, namely the motion of charge carriers in electric and magnetic fields. Both learning phases – the guided discovery of the direction of force in the magnetic field as well as its discrimination from the electric field – are predicated on a serious game, which was developed for the project. Pre-, post and follow up performance tests will allow the study of the interaction of cooperation with guided discovery on the one hand, and interleaved learning on the other. In addition, the student’s oral communication is recorded and analyzed regarding co-constructive or transactive utterances. The results of the proposed studies will provide important insights into how to support the lasting acquisition of principle-based scientific concepts.