Effects of Worked Examples and External Scripts on Fallacy Recognition Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT

To provide clients with the best possible treatment, social workers require fallacy recognition skills. Ideally, these skills are already acquired during university education. We conducted an experimental study with a 2 × 2 factorial design (and an additional baseline condition) with worked examples (with/without) and external scripts (with/without) as scaffolds to support social work students’ (N=130) fallacy recognition skills during case-based reasoning on the exchange of fallacious arguments of social workers in the context of a web-based learning environment. Students significantly improved their fallacy recognition skills over time. During treatment, worked examples and external scripts yielded positive effects when presented in isolation, but not when combined. However, the effects of the two scaffolds could not be maintained in the posttest. Further systematic research is needed to identify principles for an effective design of additional instructional guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

The research presented in this work was supported by the Elite Network of Bavaria [Project number: K-GS-2012-209].

Notes on contributors

Florian Spensberger

Florian Spensberger is a PhD candidate at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department of Psychology. Ingo Kollar is a professor for educational psychology at Universität Augsburg, Faculty for Philosophy and Social Sciences. Sabine Pankofer is a professor for psychology in Social Work at Katholische Stiftungshochschule München, Department of Social Work.

Ingo Kollar

Florian Spensberger is a PhD candidate at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department of Psychology. Ingo Kollar is a professor for educational psychology at Universität Augsburg, Faculty for Philosophy and Social Sciences. Sabine Pankofer is a professor for psychology in Social Work at Katholische Stiftungshochschule München, Department of Social Work.

Sabine Pankofer

Florian Spensberger is a PhD candidate at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department of Psychology. Ingo Kollar is a professor for educational psychology at Universität Augsburg, Faculty for Philosophy and Social Sciences. Sabine Pankofer is a professor for psychology in Social Work at Katholische Stiftungshochschule München, Department of Social Work.