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Version 1.3 – Updated November 2024

Worked examples

Overview

  • Influence: Worked examples
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Learning intentions
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
  • Influence Definition: A worked example provides students with a step-by-step guidelines for finding the solution. An aim is to enable students to focus on discrete problem-solving tasks, rather than attempting to hold each of the steps in their working memory while solving a complex problem. In a "faded solutions" variant of the worked example, subsequent problem statements have fewer and fewer instructions until the student is able to complete the complex problem-solving task without the assistance of step-by-step guidelines.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 3
  • Number of studies: 126
  • Number of students: 3,324
  • Number of effects: 360
  • Weighted mean effect size: 0.47
  • Robustness index: 3

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Dissertation Crissman USA The Design and Utilization of Effective Worked Examples: A Meta-Analysis 2006 Worked examples on achievement 62 3,324 151 0.57
Educational Psychology Review Wittwer & Renkl Germany How effective are instructional explanations in example-based learning? A meta-analytic review 2010 Worked examples on achievement 21 0 28 0.16
Conference paper Barbieri, Miller-Cotto, Clerjuste, Chawla, Le, DeLuca, & Landy USA A meta-analysis exploring the effect of worked examples on mathematics performance. 2023 Worked examples on achievement 43 0 181 0.48
TOTAL/AVERAGE 126 3,324 360 0.40
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