The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 14 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction: Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning
Open accessAbstract
In a study with 112 third- and fourth-grade children, we measured the relative effectiveness of discovery learning and direct instruction at two points in the learning process: (a) during the initial acquisition of the basic cognitive objective (a procedure for designing and interpreting simple, unconfounded experiments) and (b) during the subsequent transfer and application of this basic skill to more diffuse and authentic reasoning associated with the evaluation of science-fair posters. We found not only that many more children learned from direct instruction than from discovery learning, but also that when asked to make broader, richer scientific judgments, the many children who learned about experimental design from direct instruction performed as well as those few children who discovered the method on their own. These results challenge predictions derived from the presumed superiority of discovery approaches in teaching young children basic procedures for early scientific investigations.
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Claims the paper makes
7 Own result · 6 No full text of the sources · 6 Own method · 2 Own interpretation · 1 Partly supported · 1 Sources not found · 1 Not checked yet · accuracy not yet measured
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“When the direct-instruction procedure was adapted from an experimental script to a lesson plan implemented in a classroom setting, mean CVS performance increased from 30% prior to instruction to 96% following instruction (Toth, Klahr, & Chen, 2000).”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites Toth, Klahr, & Chen, 2000 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The CVS Performance section reports that mean performance in individual interviews increased from 30% before instruction to 97% after instruction, not 96%. The classroom-worksheet analysis also reports 97% after instruction, but its preinstruction figure is 58%. (LLM, conf=0.90)
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Partly supported
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The results, shown in Table 2, replicated the pattern for the grand poster score: Experts and masters outperformed nonmasters, regardless of the learning paths.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 2: Poster Evaluations
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Table 2 shows that experts, discovery masters, and direct-instruction masters had higher grand poster scores than discovery nonmasters and direct-instruction nonmasters, d 5 0.83.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 2: Poster Evaluations
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Forty of the 52 direct-instruction children (77%) became masters, whereas only 12 of the 52 discovery children (23%) did so, w 2 (1, N 5 104) 5 28.0, p < .0001(with Yates correction).”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 1: CVS Exploration and Assessment
plaindirectn = 52- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Moreover, there were no statistical differences among the grand poster scores for experts, discovery masters, and direct-instruction masters.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 2: Poster Evaluations
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We found not only that many more children learned from direct instruction than from discovery learning, but also that when asked to make broader, richer scientific judgments, the many children who learned about experimental design from direct instruction performed as well as those few children who discovered the method on their own.”
- Also stated in: § Day 1: CVS Exploration and Assessment · plain
“direct instruction produced many more masters than did discovery learning.”
- Also stated in: § DISCUSSION · boosted
“these results replicate other studies in which direct instruction was clearly superior to discovery learning in facilitating children's acquisition of CVS”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
boosteddirectn = 112- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Also stated in: § Day 1: CVS Exploration and Assessment · plain
In the paper
“Chen and Klahr (1999) demonstrated that direct instruction on CVS led to statistically and educationally significant improvement in children's ability to design simple, unconfounded experiments.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Chen and Klahr (1999) source
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Children who became masters via direct instruction were as skilled at evaluating science-fair posters as were discovery-learning masters and experts.”
- Also stated in: § Day 2: Poster Evaluations · plain
“In other words, the grand poster scores of the three groups that achieved high levels of CVS performance via different paths were indistinguishable.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > DISCUSSION
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The two science-fair posters used in the transfer task are highly imperfect and thus afford wide-ranging evaluations.
- Also stated in: § Day 2: Poster Evaluations · plain
In the paper
“Moreover, students receiving direct instruction were superior to control students on a far-transfer test of experimental design administered 7 months later.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Chen and Klahr (1999) source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These results challenge predictions derived from the presumed superiority of discovery approaches in teaching young children basic procedures for early scientific investigations.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
plainn = 112- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- It may state two separate claims as one. 6
- Probably not a substantial claim. 9
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“CVS scores for direct-instruction children increased dramatically from exploration to assessment: from 1.0 to 3.1, t(51) 5 10.5, p < .0001,d 5 1.73 (see Fig. 3).Scores for children in the discovery condition also increased, but much less: from 0.6 to 1.5, t(51) 5 5.3, p < .0001,d 5 0.725.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 1: CVS Exploration and Assessment
plaindirectn = 104- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The grand poster scores of the two groups who failed to master CVS were also indis-tinguishable, but significantly lower than the scores of the three high-CVS-score groups.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Day 2: Poster Evaluations
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Finally, most developmental and cognitive theories predict that many of the phenomena associated with discovery learning would make it a relatively ineffective instructional method (Mayer, 2004).”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Mayer, 2004 source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Empirical challenges come from studies demonstrating that teacher-centered methods using direct instruction are highly effective (cf.Brophy & Good, 1986;Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986), particularly for teaching multistep procedures that students are unlikely to discover on their own, such as those involved in geometry, algebra, and computer programming (Anderson, Corbett, Koedinger, & Pelletier, 1995”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Brophy & Good, 1986
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Anderson, Corbett, Koedinger, & Pelletier, 1995 source
boosteddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“CVS mastery is considered a central instructional objective from a wide variety of educational perspectives (DeBoer, 1991;Duschl, 1990;Murnane & Raizen, 1988;National Research Council, 1995).”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites DeBoer, 1991
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Duschl, 1990
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Murnane & Raizen, 1988
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Not matched
In the paper
“For children receiving direct instruction, mean performance on CVS increased in the psychology lab from 40% correct prior to instruction to 80% correct following instruction, whereas children in the discoverylearning condition showed no significant improvement.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Chen and Klahr (1999) source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“For example, children in discovery situations are more likely than those receiving direct instruction to encounter inconsistent or misleading feedback, to make encoding errors and causal misattributions, and to experience inadequate practice and elaboration.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Mayer, 2004 source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Children from both grades at each school were randomly assigned to either the direct-instruction condition or the discovery-learning condition.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plainn = 112- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“During the assessment phase, the experimenter did not provide any feedback in either condition.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is important to note that in our operationalization, the difference between direct instruction and discovery learning does not involve a difference between ''active'' and ''passive'' learning.In both conditions, students were actively engaged in the design of their experiments and the physical manipulation of the apparatus.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A different experimenter (blind to training condition) asked all children to evaluate two science-fair posters”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Children's responses were transcribed from audiotape and coded independently by two coders.(There was 83% agreement between coders on what constituted a valid critique.)”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Children were assessed individually, and the order of poster presentation was counterbalanced.”
§ The Equivalence of Learning Paths in Early Science Instruction Effects of Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning > METHOD
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper relies on this without support.
The operationalized direct-instruction and discovery-learning conditions adequately represent the two instructional approaches despite the lack of a consistent definition of discovery learning.
“However, at the outset, we faced a difficult definitional problem because nearly 100 years of research (cf.Winch, 1913) had yet to produce a consistent definition of discovery learning.foot_0Therefore, we intentionally magnified the difference between the two instructional treatments in order to provide a strong test of the pathindependent transfer hypothesis.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The two science-fair posters used in the transfer task are highly imperfect and thus afford wide-ranging evaluations.
“An important feature of these posters is that they described highly imperfect experiments, thus affording opportunities for wide-ranging evaluations.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Discovery learning approaches typically do not have positive academic outcomes when compared with more traditional direct instruction (Klahr, 2004; Mayer, 2004).”
From Montessori education's impact on academic and nonacademic outcomes: A systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as Klahr, 2004
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“The work of Klahr and Nigam (2004), discussed earlier, unambiguously demonstrated the advantages of direct instruction in science.”
From Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching (2006) · cites this paper as Klahr & Nigam, 2004
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Direct instruction involving considerable guidance, including examples, resulted in vastly more learning than discovery.”
From Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching (2006) · cites this paper as Klahr & Nigam, 2004
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Those relatively few students who learned via discovery showed no signs of superior quality of learning.”
From Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching (2006) · cites this paper as Klahr & Nigam, 2004
Citations
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“In this study physics-based and non-physics-based problems are used because reasoning ability has been found to be related to content learning (Gerber, Cavallo, & Marek, 2001; Klahr & Nigam, 2004), and there is much evidence to support the effect of context on learning (Barsalou et al., 2010).”
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Student Motivation and Resistance in Active Learning Classrooms
Owens, D., Barlow, A. T., & Smith-Walters, C. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-33600-4_57 · Cited by 7
Zhang, L., & Reet, J. V. (2021) · Research in Science Education · doi:10.1007/s11165-021-09990-w · Cited by 7
Inquiry-based mathematics education: a call for reform in tertiary education seems unjustified
Evans, T., & Dietrich, H. (2022) · STEM Education · doi:10.3934/steme.2022014 · Cited by 11
Comparison of Guided and Open Inquiry Instruction in a High School Physics Classroom
Guisti, B. (2008) · ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) · Cited by 7
Supporting Middle School Students' Development of an Accurate and Applicable Energy Concept.
Nordine, J. (2007) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · Cited by 7
Démarches d’investigation : analyse des relations entre contrat et milieu didactiques
Cross, D., & Grangeat, M. (2014) · RDST · doi:10.4000/rdst.946 · Cited by 7
Kasim, T. S. A. T., & Aini, T. S. (2012) · Tuwhera (Auckland University of Technology) · Cited by 7
Green STEM to Improve Mathematics Proficiency: ESA Mission Space Lab
Garcia-Piqueras, M., & Ruiz-Gallardo, J.-R. (2021) · Mathematics · doi:10.3390/math9172066 · Cited by 7
Feedback Authoring for Exploratory Activities: The Case of a Logo-Based 3D Microworld
Karkalas, S., Mavrikis, M., Xenos, M., & Kynigos, C. (2017) · Communications in computer and information science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-63184-4_14 · Cited by 6
“Students may not be able to exploit the full potential of such learning environments if there is not enough support available to direct them (Mayer, 2004; Klahr and Nigam, 2004).”
BackgroundLaufs, A.-K., & Kempert, S. (2021) · Unterrichtswissenschaft · doi:10.1007/s42010-020-00092-6 · Cited by 6
Using process features to investigate scientific problem-solving in large-scale assessments
Gong, T., Shuai, L., Jiang, Y., & Arslan, B. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1131019 · Cited by 6
“Central to early science instruction (Klahr and Nigam, 2004) (around grades 4–8), CVS cannot develop routinely without practice or instruction (Schwichow et al.”
BackgroundStarling, A. L. P., Lo, Y., & Rivera, C. J. (2015) · Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals · doi:10.64546/jaasep.266 · Cited by 6
Chung, Y., Song, J., 우연경, et al. (2017) · The Korean Journal of Educational Methodology Studies · doi:10.17927/tkjems.2017.29.1.211 · Cited by 6
Kompetenzförderung beim Experimentieren
Kremer, K., Möller, A., Arnold, J. C., & Mayer, J. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-662-58443-9_7 · Cited by 6
Jo, S., & Seo, Y. S. (2021) · Research Papers in Education · doi:10.1080/02671522.2021.1961294 · Cited by 7
“…the 1990s, there has been a line of research questioning the theoretical and empirical grounds for the effectiveness of student-centred learning and claiming that traditional teachercentred learning is more effective of student achievement (Klahr and Nigam 2004; Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark 2006).”
BackgroundInfluentialUsing Guided Play to Facilitate Young Children’s Exploratory Learning
Yu, Y. (2022) · Empowering teaching and learning through policies and practice · doi:10.1007/978-981-16-7405-1_10 · Cited by 11
Children perpetuate competence-based inequality when they help peers
Sierksma, J. (2023) · npj Science of Learning · doi:10.1038/s41539-023-00192-9 · Cited by 7
Use of a mobile application to promote scientific discovery learning
Seol, S., Sharp, A., & Kim, P. (2012) · Conference on Information Technology Education · doi:10.1145/2380552.2380591 · Cited by 6
Preschoolers' learning about buoyancy: Does it help to give away the answer?
Baker, H., Haussmann, A., Kloos, H., et al. (2011) · IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) · doi:10.1109/devlrn.2011.6037373 · Cited by 6
“The bad reputation of direct instruction is surprising, given a large body of empirical evidence in support of direct instruction in both human (e.g., [6], [ 7 ], see also [8]) and robotic (e.g.”
Background“Natural Philosophy” as a Foundation for Science Education in an Age of High‐Stakes Accountability
Buxton, C., & Provenzo, E. F. (2011) · School Science and Mathematics · doi:10.1111/j.1949-8594.2010.00060.x · Cited by 6
McHenry, N. C., & Borger, L. (2013) · The Electronic Journal of Science Education · Cited by 6
Pimentel, D. S., & McNeill, K. L. (2016) · International Journal of Science Education · doi:10.1080/09500693.2016.1225183 · Cited by 7
“A main reason for the inconsistent results is the variability in teachers’ approaches to student discussions (Johnson, Kahle, & Fargo, 2007; Klahr & Li, 2005; Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
ResultFocus wildlife park: Outdoor learning at workstations for primary school children
Glaab, S., & Heyne, T. F. (2019) · Applied Environmental Education & Communication · doi:10.1080/1533015x.2018.1554461 · Cited by 6
“Klahr and Nigam (2004) contrast inquiry-based learning being not as effective as direct instruction.”
BackgroundPutra, Z. H. (2019) · International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education · doi:10.29333/iejme/5775 · Cited by 6
“A theory to justify this didactical technology is direct instructional teaching and learning (Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
BackgroundDahlen, O., Lervik, A., Aarøen, O., Cabriolu, R., Lyng, R., & van Erp, T. S. (2020) · Computer Applications in Engineering Education · doi:10.1002/cae.22249 · Cited by 6
“Although it is recognized that children may benefit more in learning from instructional guidance [14, 13], the explicit aim of higher education is to foster students to become self ‐ regulated life ‐ long learners, which implies that students should benefit from being trained in internal guidance…”
BackgroundCategories of Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach
Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-8126-4_1 · Cited by 6
Zhang, L., & Li, Z. (2019) · Canadian Journal of Science Mathematics and Technology Education · doi:10.1007/s42330-019-00055-9 · Cited by 6
Costley, J. (2015) · International Journal of Learning Teaching and Educational Research · Cited by 6
Self-Regulated Learning as a Method to Develop Scientific Thinking
Peters‐Burton, E. E. (2013) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-2809-0.ch001 · Cited by 6
Roll, I. (2009) · Cited by 6
Karlsson, G. (2012) · Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive (Gothenburg University) · Cited by 6
5 Elevers oppfatninger av naturfagsundervisning
Jensen, F., & Kjærnsli, M. (2016) · doi:10.18261/9788215027463-2016-06 · Cited by 6
Fukuda, M., Nesbit, J. C., & Winne, P. H. (2024) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2024.1446941 · Cited by 5
The Scope of Problem-Based Learning and Integrated Research Education for Primary Learners
Al-Thani, N. J., & Ahmad, Z. (2025) · Springer briefs in education · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-87544-1_2 · Cited by 6
Gu, X., Shi, P., Zhao, S., Zhang, H., Li, S., Tong, D., & Liu, H. (2025) · Thinking Skills and Creativity · doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2025.101871 · Cited by 5
DeCaro, M. S., McClellan, D., Patrick, R. J., Powe, A. M., Franco, D., Chastain, R. J., Fuselier, L., & Hieb, J. (2025) · British Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjep.70007 · Cited by 6
Learning the control-of-variables strategy during an informal science lesson on popping popcorn
Morris, B. J., Cason, J., Asaro, K., Zhang, Y., Rivers, M. L., Owens, W., & Dunlosky, J. T. (2024) · International Journal of Science Education · doi:10.1080/09500693.2024.2310526 · Cited by 5
“This is particularly important for helping children acquire foundational scienti fi c reasoning skills, such as how to design a good (i.e. unconfounded) experiment, which provides further bene fi ts for acquiring science knowledge (Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
InfluentialTeaching Versus Active Learning: A Computational Analysis of Conditions that Affect Learning.
Yang, S. C., & Shafto, P. (2017) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 4
Kapıcı, H. Ö., & Akçay, H. (2020) · Cited by 5
Kaneza, P., Nkurunziza, J. B., & Twagilimana, I. (2023) · African Journal of Research in Mathematics Science and Technology Education · doi:10.1080/18117295.2023.2275858 · Cited by 5
“Learning by doing encourages generative cognitive processing (Stull & Mayer, 2007), such as arranging and integrating the selected material, which deepens understanding (de Jong & Lazonder, 2014; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004).”
BackgroundGennen, T. (2024) · Educational Review · doi:10.1080/00131911.2024.2409949 · Cited by 5
Mannel, S., Walpuski, M., & Sumfleth, E. (2015) · Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/s40573-015-0028-6 · Cited by 5
Measuring inquiry: new methods, promises & challenges
Clarke‐Midura, J., Mayrath, M. C., & Dede, C. (2010) · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · Cited by 5
Granger, E. M., Bevis, T. H., Saka, Y., et al. (2010) · Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series eBooks · Cited by 5
Corwin, A. (2011) · ProQuest LLC eBooks · doi:10.7916/d8d79jc4 · Cited by 5
“Klahr and Nigam (2004) conducted a study in which they”
BackgroundREFINING INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE INSTRUCTION THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT USING THE VISTA MODEL
Mannarino, A., Logerwell, G., & Edmondson, E. (2012) · Cited by 5
Sequential effects of high and low guidance on children's early science learning
Matlen, B. J., & Klahr, D. (2010) · International Conference of Learning Sciences · Cited by 5
Self-citationAttentiveness and Self-Studying are Keys to Academic Performance
Au, O. T.-S., So, R. C. H., & Lee, L. (2016) · International Symposium on Educational Technology · doi:10.1109/iset.2016.27 · Cited by 5
“Some suggest that supervised learning is more important than self-study [8, 9].”
BackgroundTesting the Robustness of Inquiry Practices Once Scaffolding Is Removed
Li, H., Gobert, J. D., & Dickler, R. (2019) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-22244-4_25 · Cited by 6
Sequencing inquiry tasks and video modeling examples to enhance L2 willingness to communicate
Zarrinabadi, N., & Alipour, F. (2020) · Learning and Motivation · doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2020.101669 · Cited by 5
Student-oriented teaching practices and educational equality: a population-based study
Saarinen, A. I. L., Lipsanen, J. O., Hintsanen, M., et al. (2020) · Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology · doi:10.25115/ejrep.v18i51.2784 · Cited by 5
“However, evidence is still limited, so that the need for studies examining this topic more thoroughly has been clearly expressed (e.g. Gao et al., 2014; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Kyriakides et al., 2013).”
BackgroundResultWilson, C. D., Taylor, J. A., Kowalski, S. M., & Carlson, J. (2009) · Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness · Cited by 4
Muhammad, R. R., Lawson, D. A., Aslam, F., & Crawford, M. (2022) · Journal of Research in Science Mathematics and Technology Education · doi:10.31756/jrsmte.523 · Cited by 8
“Discovery learning is a process that encourages students to assimilate a concept by observing, grouping, hypothesizing, explaining, measuring, and concluding (Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
BackgroundGao, S. (2020) · Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) · doi:10.34917/6456410 · Cited by 4
Almarode, J., Subotnik, R. F., & Lee, G. M. (2016) · Gifted Child Today · doi:10.1177/1076217516662096 · Cited by 5
“This finding is in line with the work of Klahr and Nigam (2004), as well as Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) and Hattie (2009) reporting on the effectiveness of direct instruction over other approaches (e.g., problem-based learning).”
Explicit instruction of rules interferes with visuomotor skill transfer
Tanaka, K., & Watanabe, K. (2017) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-017-4933-4 · Cited by 5
“…3-4-1 Ohkubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan 2 Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 3 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan 1 3 the field of education and learning science (e.g., Klahr and Nigam 2004; Dean and Kuhn 2006).”
BackgroundUsing Virtual Labs in an Inquiry Context
Hovardas, T., Xenofontos, N. A., & Zacharia, Z. C. (2017) · Advances in educational technologies and instructional design book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2528-8.ch003 · Cited by 5
Beyer, C., Emmerich, J., & Werner, U. (2017) · IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) · doi:10.1109/educon.2017.7943045 · Cited by 5
“Teaching in this way much more effective, than just reciting the components and the functions of the window lifter model [9,10].”
BackgroundMcHenry, N. C., Borger, L., & Liable‐Sands, L. M. (2017) · Journal of Curriculum and Teaching · doi:10.5430/jct.v6n2p59 · Cited by 5
“Although there have been some researchers that deny its effectiveness (Chen and Klahr, 1999; Klahr and Nigam, 2004; Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006), Authors’ (2013) synthesis of current research findings on Bybee’s 5E model includes improving understanding by removing concept errors existing in…”
BackgroundSelf Assessment and Discovery Learning.
McDonald, B. (2011) · Cited by 5
How Inquiry Could Contribute to the Prepared Mind
Bybee, R. W. (2006) · The American Biology Teacher · doi:10.1662/0002-7685(2006)68[454:hicctt]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 5
Effectiveness of Discovery Learning-Based Transformation Geometry Module
Febriana, R., Haryono, Y., & Yusri, R. (2017) · Journal of Physics Conference Series · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/895/1/012003 · Cited by 5
The effectiveness of problem-based learning in the high school science classroom
Sindelar, T. M. (2010) · Holmes Museum Of Anthropology (Wichita State University) · Cited by 5
Design, Development, and Evaluation of Scaffolds for Data Interpretation Practices during Inquiry
Moussavi-Aghdam, R. (2018) · Digital WPI · Cited by 5
Higher Order Thinking and Knowledge
Alexander, P. A., Dinsmore, D. L., Fox, E., Grossnickle, E. M., Loughlin, S. M., Maggioni, L., Parkinson, M. M., & Winters, F. I. (2011) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-61735-507-320251005 · Cited by 6
Dion, É. (2012) · Revue de psychoéducation · doi:10.7202/1061807ar · Cited by 4
Jambunathan, S., Jayaraman, J. D., Jayaraman, A., et al. (2020) · Education 3-13 · doi:10.1080/03004279.2020.1733041 · Cited by 4
Inquiry-Based Learning in Psychology
Lippmann, M. (2021) · Springer international handbooks of education · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-26248-8_59-1 · Cited by 8
Exploring Inquiry Skills During Home Experiments about Science in the Online Instruction
Supeno, S., Ridlo, Z. R., & Setiawan, A. M. (2022) · Journal of Physics Conference Series · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2392/1/012019 · Cited by 4
Elstad, E. (2023) · Evaluating education: Normative systems and institutional practices · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-26051-3_3 · Cited by 4
Chi, S.-H., & Wang, Z.-H. (2023) · Research in Science Education · doi:10.1007/s11165-023-10121-w · Cited by 5
“Second, those studies might not have integrated TF into the inquiry activities, with the present results providing empirical evidence for the claim that TF is essential for inquiry science learning (Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
BackgroundSierksma, J., & Brummelman, E. (2025) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.14259 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Klahr, D., & Nigam, M.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-10
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 661-667
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2139559367
- Cited by
- 977
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 28 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 63 · 2017: 53 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 50 · 2012: 69
- FWCI
- 115.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- KiltHub Repository
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD025211)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Science Education and Pedagogy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Keywords
- discovery learning, direct instruction, early childhood science education, elementary school students, experimental design, transfer of learning, scientific reasoning, learning trajectories, teaching effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Child, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Science, Teaching
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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