![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The authors investigated whether the amount of instructional guidance affects science learning and self-efficacy. Sixty 9- and 10-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of the following three instructional conditions: (a) guided instruction consisting of examples and student-generated explanations, (b) direct instruction consisting of a lecture and examples, and (c) minimal instruction consisting of student directed discovery. Children who received guided instruction designed a greater percentage of experiments correctly and self-reported greater changes in science self-efficacy than children in the other conditions. No statistically significant differences were observed between direct and guided instruction on outcome measures of cued recall, application and evaluation. However, both conditions performed statistically higher on these outcome measures relative to the minimal instruction condition.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Carolyn J. Hushman
Carolyn J. Hushman is afffiliated with the University of New Mexico. Her research focuses on learning strategies in science and professional development for science teachers.
Scott C. Marley
Scott C. Marley is an Associate Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the application of activity-based learning strategies to mathematics, science, and reading.