Engagement with an Educational Issue

Introduction

Research and reflection in education are useful practices that improve pedagogy

and work towards a resolution with an educational issue (Ullman, 2015). Research

conducted are constantly being recommended and integrated in the everyday classroom.

Research plays an important part to improve the education of students and therefore

research and pedagogy are intrinsically linked (Hattie, 2003). Through the context of

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s (2006) article on minimal and direction instruction

guidance, the relationship of research and pedagogy can be examined. A stage 5 activity

on trigonometry produced by BOSTES (Appendix) is reviewed and revised according to

the analysis and the interspersed recommendations that when introducing novel

concepts, direct instruction should be used, whilst with competent, students should

engage with a minimal guidance activity to improve the pedagogical practice through

research and reflection.

Conceptualising human cognitive architecture, minimal guidance and direct instruction

guidance

In order to discuss minimal guidance and direct instruction in depth, being

informed on human cognitive architecture provides the background knowledge to

understand these pedagogical theories at a deeper level. The structures and functions of

human cognitive architecture is required to process and use information (Kirschner,

Sweller & Clark, 2006). According to Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) model of human

cognitive architecture, it is made up of sensory memory, working memory, and long term

memory. The interrelationship with specifically with working memory, long term

memory, and the cognitive processes support people’s learning. Knowledge creation that

is sustained in long term memory is very restricted as the working memory has limitation
in it volume and duration whilst processing novel information (Kirschner, Sweller &

Clark, 2006). According to Peterson and Peterson (1959) novel information that is not

reiterated is gone within 30 seconds from first exposure combined with Miller (1956)

and Cowan (2001) research suggests that the working memory can hold 5 to 9 pieces of

new information and process 2 to 4 out of the information that is being held. If an

experienced learner in the specified topic is being exposed to the information, then

limitations are exceeded with ease as the information is already in long term memory.

Minimal guided instruction can be divided into two different categories, pure

discovery and guided discovery, also known by names such as discovery learning,

problem-based learning, inquiry based teaching, and constructivism (Brunstein, Betts &

Anderson, 2009; Klahr & Nigam, 2004). Pure discovery, as defined by Mayer (2004), is

the teacher providing “little or no guidance” (p. 15) for an activity. As opposed to pure

discovery, Brunstein, Betts and Anderson (2009) suggests that guided discovery is the

teacher providing guidance through things such as scaffolds, hints, expectations, direct

coaching, process worksheets, constructive criticism and/or modeling. However, direct

instruction is defined as “providing information that fully explains the concepts and

procedures that students are required to learn as well as learning strategy support that

is compatible with human cognitive architecture” by Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006,

p. 75). Instructional strategies vary largely from teacher to teacher, as well as their

interpretation of minimal guidance and direct instruction, and mathematics is a rich

combination of both (Brunstein, Betts & Anderson, 2009). The compatibility of these

particular guiding strategies with studies of human cognition is heavily explored in

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s (2006) research compilation.

Supporting Pedagogical Strategies and National Educational Goals

 The broad discussion within Australia of the use of minimal guidance and direct

instruction and the advantages and disadvantages of both is reflected in educational

policy documentation. The Quality Teaching Model summarised by Gore (2007) strives

to systematically reform pedagogical strategies through reflection, and covers three

dimensions; “intellectual quality, quality learning environment, and significance” (p. 17).

In particular, quality learning environment has the components of “explicit quality

criteria,” and “student direction” (Gore, 2007, p. 21) which is related to minimal guidance

and direct instruction. Explicit quality criteria is giving students quality instructions and

directions, not only with what the activity is, but the expectations of how they complete

the activity, in what amount of time, and set standard of what good work is (Gore &

Ladwig, 2003). Student direction is about giving students control over some aspects of

the lesson as Gore (2007) suggests that it increases students’ willingness to seriously

participate in the classroom leading to positive learning outcomes.

The Melbourne declaration (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment,

Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008) also aims to improve educational

outcomes by promoting that youths of Australia should be nurtured into “successful

learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens” by

educators (MCEETYA, 2008, p. 9). Notably, the creative aspect requires students to be

resourceful and inventive in problem solving, and being able to draw upon knowledge to

do so. Minimal guidance in terms of guided discovery allows students to work

collaboratively to discover different ways in approaching a multitude of diverse problems

whilst having teacher support (Aulls, 2002). In the spectrum of mathematics, it is not

possible to go through all possible cases using direct instruction, hence a combination of

direct instruction and guided discovery nurtures problem solving skills and develop

critical thinking (Brunstein, Betts & Anderson, 2009).

Critical Summary

The issues of minimal guidance on novel information for students is thoroughly

discussed in the theoretical article “Why minimal guidance during instruction does not

work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential,

and inquiry-based teaching” by Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006). The article is a

research compilation and hence, no actual research was conducted by the authors

themselves, but its purpose is to draw on previous knowledge in order to fill in the gaps

and understand why minimal guidance may or may not work in different scenarios. The

researchers take on the human cognitive perspective on minimal guidance which denies

that minimal guidance works with novel information because it does not align with

human cognitive architecture.

The research methodology is drawing upon the material analysis on the human

cognitive architecture from up to half a century ago in order to compile reliable

information to support the authors’ arguments on the effectiveness of minimal guidance.

The works cited in this article ranged from 1956 to 2005. However out of the one hundred

and fourteen references, thirty one of them were from 1996 to 2006, which is ten year

span, twenty five out of those thirty one were from 2001 to 2006 were also in a period of

a five year span and approximately 21% of the references were associated with the

authors. Since the majority of the background research is from before 1996 and a

somewhat considerable portions are related to, the reliability comes into question as the

information may not be up-to-date (Shank, Brown & Pringle, 2015). Despite this,

Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) specify that data on human cognition has not

changed much over the past half a century and hence is still relevant to their research.

The authors argues through the support of their thorough research of other

articles that minimal guidance does not work well at all with novel information due to the
limitations of the working memory in the half a century research on human cognitive

architecture. Moreover, their research shows that students learning new content via the

constructivist approach may lead to students having gaps in their knowledge and may

even experience a loss of learning, however, minimal guidance is more effective as the

expertise in the field increases. Direct instruction with novice learners in the field will

allow for students to have accurate representation of the complete information and is

acquired with much more ease through documentations such as worked examples and

process worksheets (Sweller, 2004). Attempts at minimal guidance may sometimes not

achieve the goals intended and ends up providing an ample amount of instruction and

guidance, thus the minimal guidance progresses towards instructional interaction.

Hence, the authors’ conclusion is that explicit direction with novice learners is more

adequate, once there a foundation in knowledge moving to minimal guidance is possible,

and pedagogy is a rich balance of both.

Activity: Assessment and Revision

The recommendations interspersed throughout Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s

(2006) article on minimal guidance and direct instruction can be explored in stage 5

activity on trigonometry produced by BOSTES (Appendix). The worksheet is developed

for students who are nearing the end of the trigonometry unit and are able to apply their

understanding, skills, and knowledge to solve trigonometric problems. The objective of

this activity is to develop connections of mathematical concepts, application of problem

solving skills and be able to give reasons for their answer. This activity would be classified

under minimal guidance as the teacher prompts students through the task and the

students themselves search for their own problems to answer on a worksheet.

Reflecting on the recommendations presented in the minimal guidance article,

acknowledging and revising the lesson activity will be through the comparison of minimal
guidance and direct instruction pedagogy. As the target learners are supposed at the end

of the trigonometry unit where students should be able to label sides of right angled

triangles and determine trigonometric ratios, Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006)

suggests minimal guidance would be plausible. Minimal guidance is achieved as

worksheet does not specify any problems to solve but allows students to search for their

own questions and determine themselves how to solve the problem. Teachers facilitate

their learning through hints and scaffolding their progression using questions such as

“why don’t you draw a right-angled triangle to get started?” or “can you remember some

types of trigonometry questions you did in class exercises?” (Appendix). Hence,

according to the Quality Teaching Model (Gore & Ladwig, 2003), this activity covers the

components of student direction yet fails to meet explicit quality criteria. Explicit quality

criteria helps improve guided discovery as it sets a standard in which students should

strive and the amount of time that the work should be achieved (Lunenberg & Korthagen,

2003). This can be done through providing process worksheets that students can

reference and check their progress. Providing questions at the end of the activity for

practice would greatly improve student knowledge and problem solving skills as they

gain experience with a diverse range of problems (Brunstein, Betts & Anderson, 2009).

As opposed to guided discovery, direct instruction would work just as well for

experts on the topic of trigonometry, but also assist learners who may feel left behind by

peers as they may not have fully developed their knowledge for whatever reason. Having

novice or weaker learners means that implementing the instructional approach would be

more beneficial and this lesson plan fails to do so. Direct instructional guidance involves

explicit directions in how to solve a problem and providing a full explanation as to why

which concepts and strategies were used. This is because it aligns with the human

cognitive architecture that it works effectively for all students and especially students
who may struggle with understanding trigonometry. This would require the teacher to

research and gather a multitude of distinct questions to work through together with the

class. In terms of the instructional approach, teachers would slowly walk students

through how to solve questions using worked examples prepared beforehand,

progressing from simpler questions to real-world application of trigonometry to lessen

the cognitive load for weaker learners.

Conclusion

Through the thorough analysis of a multitude of articles and applying the

recommendations presented in Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s (2006) article, it is

evidence that research can spur on shift of pedagogical strategies. Despite either

completely changing the direction of the lesson or only adding on different resources to

the activity presented by BOSTES, educational research continues to shape pedagogical

strategies that are implemented in modern classrooms beyond a single key learning area

and strives to improve the performance and classroom experience of students. Therefore,

there exists the cyclical intrinsic link between valuable educational research and

pedagogy that progresses towards facilitating effective learning and nurturing youths to

reach the best of their abilities.

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Appendix