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
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Preschool Children’s Science Learning: Instructional Approaches and Individual Differences
Grenell, A., Ernst, J. R., & Carlson, S. M. (2024) · Early Education and Development · doi:10.1080/10409289.2024.2360884 · Cited by 4
“Despite these potential benefits, drawbacks include greater working memory demands (e.g., Kirschner et al., 2006; Tuovinen & Sweller, 1999) and provision of inconsistent or misleading feedback to the learner, particularly during unguided discovery learning (e.g., Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004).”
InfluentialExecutive function predictors of science achievement in middle-school students
Varma, K., Boekel, M. V., Aylward, G., & Varma, S. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1197002 · Cited by 3
“randomizing over hypothesis-irrelevant variables (Chen and Klahr, 1999; Klahr and Nigam, 2004; Kuhn et al., 2008).”
Do Mathematics and Reading Skills Impact Student Science Outcomes?
Doabler, C. T., Rojo, M., Gersib, J. A., Fall, A., Longhi, M. A., Lovette, G. E., Roberts, G. J., Uy, J., Johnson, K., Ghafghazi, S., et al. (2024) · Journal of Learning Disabilities · doi:10.1177/00222194241263646 · Cited by 3
Beauty and blended learning: E-learning in vocational programs
Brown, M. C. (2008) · Cited by 3
The Impacts of Automatic Scaffolding on Students' Acquisition of Data Collection Inquiry Skills
Pedro, M. S., Gobert, J. D., & Baker, R. S. (2014) · Grantee Submission · Cited by 3
Inquiry-based science education: Between teacher guidance and student autonomy in learning physics
Boilevin, J.-M. (2023) · AIP conference proceedings · doi:10.1063/5.0123773 · Cited by 3
Tanulóközösségben végzett kutatásalapú tanulás folyamatainak kognitív, társas és tanítási tényezői
Molnár, P., Pintér, H., & Tóth, E. (2017) · Magyar Pedagógia · doi:10.17670/mped.2017.4.423 · Cited by 3
From “Customer” to “Partner”: Approaches to Conceptualization of Student-University Relationships
Maloshonok, N., & Щеглова, И. А. (2021) · University development and administration · doi:10.1007/978-981-13-3364-4_4-2 · Cited by 3
Oversimplifying Teaching of the Control of Variables Strategy
Lorch, R. F., Lorch, E. P., Wheeler, S. L., Freer, B. D., Dunlap, E. E., Reeder, E. C., Calderhead, W. J., Neste, J. V., & Chen, H.-T. M. (2019) · Psicologí a Educativa · doi:10.5093/psed2019a13 · Cited by 3
“…to explore the experimental domain and construct comparisons but are not given such direct instruction in how and why to manipulate the focal variable while holding all other variables constant in value (Chen & Klahr, 1999; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Strand-Cary & Klahr, 2008; Triona & Klahr, 2003).”
BackgroundResultDejonckheere, P., Keere, K. V. D., & Tallir, I. (2011) · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Cited by 3
When the rubber meets the road: putting research-based methods to test in urban classrooms
Li, J., Klahr, D., & Jabbour, A. (2018) · Figshare · doi:10.1184/r1/6619160 · Cited by 3
Self-citationSears, D. (2006) · International Conference of Learning Sciences · Cited by 3
Olaoye, O. F. (2014) · Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences · doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p897 · Cited by 3
“…that inexperienced learners should be provided with direct instructional guidance on the concepts; context and procedures required by a particular discipline and should not be left to discover those procedures on their own Cronbach & Snow, 1977; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004; Sweller, 2003).”
BackgroundCognitive components of troubleshooting strategies
Gugerty, L. (2007) · Thinking & Reasoning · doi:10.1080/13546780600750641 · Cited by 3
Ding, M., & Li, X. (2014) · Mathematics Education Research Journal · doi:10.1007/s13394-013-0095-2 · Cited by 3
“To reduce students’ cognitive load, direct guidance is, therefore, recommended for classroom instruction (e.g., Kirschner et al. 2006; Klahr and Nigam 2004).”
BackgroundThe Relative Pedagogical Value of Disassemble/Analyze/Assemble (DAA) Activities.
Dalrymple, O., Sears, D., & Evangelou, D. (2013) · AEE Journal · Cited by 3
Streit, C., David, C. K., & Hildebrandt, E. (2016) · South African Journal of Childhood Education · doi:10.4102/sajce.v5i3.358 · Cited by 3
Breaking Down the Barriers of Online Teaching: Training TESOL Teachers in a Virtual Environment
Malczewska-Webb, B., Vallero, A., King, C. P., & Hunter, S. (2016) · Second language learning and teaching · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31954-4_16 · Cited by 4
Discovery Method and Teaching-Research
Baker, W. (2016) · SensePublishers eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-6300-549-4_21 · Cited by 3
Effective Teaching and Successful Learning: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice
Florio, I. D. (2016) · Cited by 3
Instructional Representations as Tools to Teach Systems Thinking
Lee, T., & Jones, M. G. (2018) · Models and modeling in science education · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-89945-9_7 · Cited by 3
Toward Empirical Analysis of Pedagogical Feedback in Computer Programming Learning Environments
Raubenheimer, G., Jeffries, B., & Yacef, K. (2021) · Australasian Computing Education Conference · doi:10.1145/3441636.3442321 · Cited by 3
Cognitive Learning Assessment Based on FAHP and RSM: A Case Study of Introduction to Network course
Lin, C., Chang, S.-J., & Chen, Y. (2021) · Journal of Educational Computing Research · doi:10.1177/07356331211012685 · Cited by 3
“According to previous studies (C. M. Chen, 2008; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Kurilovas et al., 2015; Peng et al., 2019), through the analysis of the learning process, the arrangement of teaching materials and the formulation of teaching strategies are good reference values.”
ResultLewis, D. (2008) · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · Cited by 3
Cognitive Load Estimation for Optimizing Learning within Intelligent Tutoring Systems
Courtemanche, F., Najjar, M., & Mayers, A. (2008) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-69132-7_88 · Cited by 3
“Several researches in educational sciences [5,6] argue that guided learning is superior to other forms of learning that allow more freedom to the student (e.”
BackgroundMaking Controlled Experimentation More Informative in Inquiry Investigations
McElhaney, K. W. (2010) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 3
Fostering expert learning strategies in novices
de Bruin, A. B. H. (2006) · EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) · Cited by 3
Tabor, P. D. (2008) · Cross Connect (Southern Cross University) · Cited by 3
The Effect of a Constructivist-Based Approach on Fifth Grade Reading Achievement.
Harkness, L. M. (2016) · ScholarWorks (Walden University) · Cited by 3
Weixler, L. B. (2012) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan) · Cited by 3
Feldman, D., Gori, A., & Diuk, B. (2021) · Itinerarios Educativos · doi:10.14409/ie.2021.14.e0008 · Cited by 2
From approach to outcome: contemporary vectors in education
Sodiqov, A. A., Бабаева, З. С., Muxammadjanovna, S. S., et al. (2025) · The Education and science journal · doi:10.17853/1994-5639-2025-9-30-56 · Cited by 2
Ready to experiment? A closer look at students’ scientific skills in lower secondary education
Čipková, E., Fuchs, M., Huszárová, K., & Trško, Ľ. (2026) · International Journal of Science Education · doi:10.1080/09500693.2026.2617918 · Cited by 5
Thiel, R., Bowling, A., Rumble, J. N., et al. (2022) · Advancements in Agricultural Development · doi:10.37433/aad.v3i1.133 · Cited by 2
“Further studies have shown that direct instruction allows for substantial knowledge transfer (Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Schwartz & Bransford, 1998), a more significant improvement in conceptual knowledge, and the ability to understand future material (Rittle-Johnson et al., 2001).”
BackgroundResultBrandenburger, M., Salim, C. A., Schwichow, M., Wilbers, J., & Mikelskis-Seifert, S. (2022) · Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/s40573-022-00140-x · Cited by 3
To What Extent Is General Intelligence Relevant to Causal Reasoning? A Developmental Study
Dündar‐Coecke, S. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.692552 · Cited by 3
“, 1993, 2002; Carey, 2011), or slowly developing abilities playing a role in scientific reasoning (Dunbar and Klahr, 1988; Kuhn et al., 1988; Klahr, 2000; Klahr and Nigam, 2004; Dean and Kuhn, 2007; Kuhn, 2007; Zimmerman, 2007) warrant further exploration.”
BackgroundScientific Thinking in Young Children: Development, Culture, and Education
Köksal, Ö. (2022) · Science across cultures · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-08208-5_16 · Cited by 3
Psychology in Teacher Education
Narciss, S., & Zumbach, J. (2022) · Springer international handbooks of education · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28745-0_68 · Cited by 2
Taylor, J. A., Kowalski, S. M., Askinas, K. M., & Watson, K. A. (2023) · Social Sciences & Humanities Open · doi:10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100445 · Cited by 2
Örnek, F., & Alaam, S. A. (2024) · Science & Education · doi:10.1007/s11191-024-00523-1 · Cited by 4
Yeung, E. K. L., Zhong, M., Huang, J., Chan, M. H., Siu, T. S. C., & Cheung, H. (2024) · The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher · doi:10.1007/s40299-024-00893-8 · Cited by 4
“…with literature that suggest constructivist instructional approaches involving minimal guidance are not conducive to learning because of the heavy demands on working memory that interferes with knowledge accumulation in long-term memory (Kirschner et al., 2006; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Mayer, 2004).”
Eichhorn, K. A. (2024) · Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups · doi:10.1044/2024_persp-24-00011 · Cited by 2
Retrieval Practice: A Tool for Teaching the Control-of-Variables Strategy in Science Classrooms?
Kranz, J., Möller, A., Kaufmann, K., & Tempel, T. (2024) · The Journal of Experimental Education · doi:10.1080/00220973.2024.2392684 · Cited by 8
“…activities with a larger degree of guidance to support children’s ability and understanding of CVS in science education (e.g., Chen & Klahr, 1999; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Schwichow et al., 2016) might relate to the beneficial results of restudying as it seems to be the most direct form of…”
Children Strategically Decide What to Practice
Serko, D., Leonard, J., & Ruggeri, A. (2025) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.14268 · Cited by 6
“…relative advantages of active versus instructed learning across different stages of development (Bonawitz et al. 2011; Gureckis and Markant 2012; Klahr and Nigam 2004; Piaget 1930), but also for practically understanding when and how to best scaffold children's learning to help them develop…”
Sierksma, J., & Poorthuis, A. M. G. (2025) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/desc.70071 · Cited by 2
Ganaiem, E., & Roll, I. (2025) · Instructional Science · doi:10.1007/s11251-025-09750-7 · Cited by 3
“A study by Klahr and Nigam (2004), on designing and interpreting simple and unconfounded experiments, showed that children who received direct instruction not only learned more effectively but also demonstrated transfer of knowledge by making broader and more sophisticated scientific inferences.”
Theory of Learning, Theory of Teaching, and Theory of Mind
Knutsen, J., Frye, D. A., & Sobel, D. M. (2013) · Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks · doi:10.1108/978-1-62396-513-620251018 · Cited by 2
Ruggeri, A., Olsson, H., & Katsikopoulos, K. V. (2015) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12100 · Cited by 2
Constructivism versus Cognitive Load Theory: In Search for an Effective Mathematics Teaching
Hamzah, U., & Bustang, B. (2021) · ePrints - UNY (Yogyakarta State University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2108.04796 · Cited by 2
“By referring to several studies concerning the efficacy of direct instruction (e.g., Klahr & Nigam, 2004), they claim that students learn more deeply from ME-222 strongly guided instruction than from constructivist or discovery approaches.”
BackgroundAuthentic Problem Solving and Learning: Lessons Learned and Moving Forward
Jacobson, M. J. (2015) · Education innovation series · doi:10.1007/978-981-287-521-1_19 · Cited by 2
Variación en estilos de experimentación y conocimiento específico
Córdoba, M., & Larreamendy-Joerns, J. (2007) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cited by 2
Butcher, K. R., Leary, H., Foster, J. D., & Devaul, H. (2014) · The Journal of Technology and Teacher Education · Cited by 2
Education Research Employing Operational Definitions Can Enhance the Teaching Art
Hake, R. R. (2010) · Cited by 2
He, K. (2014) · Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange · doi:10.18785/jetde.0701.01 · Cited by 2
Integrating Top-down and Bottom-up Approaches to Children’s Causal Inference
Sobel, D. M. (2009) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331059.003.0008 · Cited by 2
“More generally, one could imagine that children learn a great deal of causal structure simply by being told about that structure (something that might be particularly important in learning science, see Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
BackgroundReconsidering the Course Format for the First Course in Thermodynamics
Lemley, E. C., Gillispie, A., & Benton, M. (2015) · ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition · doi:10.18260/p.24650 · Cited by 2
Knowledge Spaces for Online Discovery Learning
McHaney, R. (2011) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-61350-320-1.ch005 · Cited by 2
Evaluating the Use of Automated Feedback on Student Motivation
Simpson, L., Jones, M. D., & Taylor, S. A. (2018) · INNOVATIONS in pharmacy · doi:10.24926/iip.v9i2.984 · Cited by 2
Yoichiro, A. B. E., Matsumoto, E., & MATSUMOTO, S. (2019) · Journal of Research in Science Education · doi:10.11639/sjst.18018 · Cited by 2
Participatory Action Research for Learning Chemistry: A Case of Public Schools in Nepal
Acharya, K. P. (2019) · Journal of Advanced College of Engineering and Management · doi:10.3126/jacem.v5i0.26680 · Cited by 2
Effects of Using One or More Manipulatives on Strategy Mastery and Generalization
Laski, E. V., Ermakova, A., Vasilyeva, M., & Halloran, K. (2021) · The Journal of Experimental Education · doi:10.1080/00220973.2021.1973358 · Cited by 2
“To further test our hypothesis that use of multiple manipulatives would be more effective for promoting generalization, we conducted a learning path analysis (Klahr & Nigam, 2004).”
MethodPsychologie cognitive des apprentissages scolaires
Fayol, M. (2018) · Dunod eBooks · doi:10.3917/dunod.ferra.2018.01.0015 · Cited by 2
Critical Thinking and Epistemic Injustice in Education
Marabini, A. (2022) · Contemporary philosophies and theories in education · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95714-8_6 · Cited by 3
Willison, J. (2013) · Higher Education Research & Development · doi:10.1080/07294360.2013.806043 · Cited by 3
Self-Regulated Learning as a Method to Develop Scientific Thinking
Peters‐Burton, E. E. (2015) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-7363-2.ch064 · Cited by 2
Blocher, J. M. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-00152-4_14 · Cited by 2
Psychology in Teacher Education
Narciss, S., & Zumbach, J. (2022) · Springer international handbooks of education · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-26248-8_68-2 · Cited by 2
Looking for solutions: students’ use of infrared cameras in calorimetry labs
Samuelsson, C. R., Ho, F. M., Elmgren, M., & Haglund, J. (2022) · Chemistry Education Research and Practice · doi:10.1039/d2rp00178k · Cited by 2
Which student problems in experimentation are related to one another?
Baur, A. (2023) · International Journal of Science Education · doi:10.1080/09500693.2023.2175334 · Cited by 3
“On the other hand, forms of inquiry-based education that are too wide and too quickly opened are ineffective (Kirschner et al., 2006; Klahr & Nigam, 2004; Sweller et al., 2007).”
BackgroundParent and community political orientation predicts children's health behaviours
Gollwitzer, A., Marshall, J., Lee, Y.-E., Deutchman, P., Warneken, F., & McAuliffe, K. (2024) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.3055 · Cited by 4
Understanding the interaction between students' theories of intelligence and learning activities
Gadgil, S. (2014) · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · Cited by 2
Different Approaches to Teaching Which Emerged from Teacher Effectiveness Research
Creemers, B., Kyriakides, L. E., & Antoniou, P. (2012) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5207-8_6 · Cited by 6
Providing support for creative group brainstorming: taxonomy and technologies
Wang, H., Rosé, C. P., Li, T., et al. (2006) · Cited by 2
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
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