Worked Examples

Worked Examples
Contributors
Last modification	June 19, 2015
Source	{{{source}}}
Pattern formats	OPR Alexandrian
Usability
Learning domain	General
Stakeholders	Teachers Students
Confidence
Evaluation	PLoP 2015 writing workshop Talk:ASSISTments
Application	ASSISTments
Applied evaluation	ASSISTments

If some students don’t have an overview of how to solve the problem and where to begin then provide a worked example so that students can have an overview of the procedures to follow.

Context

An online learning system allows teachers to give exercises and assignments to their students. Teachers can select problems, specify the sequence and conditions for presenting problems, and assign an exercise or homework to students. Students can access their assignments through the system and answer each problem one after the other. Whenever students submit their answers, the system informs them if their answer was correct or incorrect. Students can also request for hints to help them solve the problem.

Problem

Some students don’t have an overview of how to solve the problem and where to begin.

Solution

Provide a worked example so that students can have an overview of the procedures to follow.

Forces

1. Teachers make assumptions about the background knowledge of students who will be answering the problems they create. For example, students should already understand addition and subtraction in a multiplication problem.
2. Teachers provide a limited number of hints that address specific issues that they think will help students.
3. Students do not always have enough prior knowledge to solve the problems assigned to them.

Consequences

Benefits

1. Students could see the entire procedure for solving the problem they are solving
2. Students can learn from the worked example, which could also help them solve similar problems.

Liabilities

1. Teachers and content experts will need to provide worked examples aside from hints and other feedback.
2. The online learning system will need to provide an interface to show worked examples.

Example

When teachers create a math problem in the ASSISTments math online learning system, they will be asked to provide the math problem, the correct answer, the hints, and also a worked example. In the interface, students who do not have an idea how to solve a problem can click a “worked-example button”, which will show the worked example provided by the teacher. Students can learn from the worked example and use it to solve the current problem and other similar questions in the future.

Evidence

Literature

Learning from examples is a common learning strategy that students use to acquire new skills. Worked examples give a step-by-step demonstration of how to perform a task or solve a problem. It helps novice learners form basic knowledge structures, which they can use to acquire new knowledge and skills through practice .

Discussion

Our shepherd and stakeholders (i.e., online learning system expert, educational data mining and learning analytics expert, and educators) agreed that worked examples could help novice learners solve problems that are still quite new to them. They also thought it could help them solve similar problems.

Data

Data collected from the ASSISTments online learning system showed that students rapidly requested for all available hints when they did not know how to solve the problem (i.e., based on hint request and answer correctness features). Students could have used hints as a proxy for worked examples, which showed them the entire procedure for solving the problem [1].

Pattern application

The problem has been seen frequently in the ASSISTments math online learning system data. Finding the problem in other platforms and domains can further strengthen the confidence on the pattern’s quality [2].

Applied evaluation

RCTs evaluating the use of worked examples can strengthen the confidence on the pattern’s quality if they are shown to be effective [3].

Related patterns

Worked examples organize the solution into a series of steps much like Wizard .