Example Elaboration as a Neglected Instructional Strategy

摘要

Over the last decade an unfolding cognitive-psychology research program on how learners use examples to develop effective problem solving expertise has yielded well-established empirical findings. Chi et al., Renkl, Reimann, and Neubert (in various papers) have confirmed statistically significant differences in how good and poor learners inferentially elaborate (self explain) example steps as they study. Such example elaboration is highly relevant to software documentation and training, yet largely neglected in the current literature. This paper summarizes the neglected research on example use and puts its neglect in a disciplinary perspective. The author then shows that differences in support for example elaboration in commercial software documentation reveal previously over looked usability issues. These issues involve example summaries, using goals and goal structures to reinforce example elaborations, and prompting readers to recognize the role of example parts.