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The effect of productive failure instruction on the learning process, learning outcomes, and motivation of young children.

Duivenboden, L.M. van (2017) The effect of productive failure instruction on the learning process, learning outcomes, and motivation of young children.

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Abstract:The aim of this study was to design a productive failure lesson which enables elementary school children to become acquainted with programming, using LEGO Mindstorms EV3. This study compared the effectiveness of this lesson on the learning process, the learning outcomes, and motivation of a productive failure lesson with that of a direct instruction lesson. One hundred children from two Dutch elementary schools participated in this study, dyads were composed with regard to the children’s ability level. The dyads were assigned to the productive failure condition or the direct instruction condition. During the first session the dyads participated in the lesson, which comprised two tasks, and completed the post-test. The learning process and motivation (before, during and after the tasks) were measured. After a period of two weeks the dyads took the delayed post-test. The results indicated that children were able to learn to program with LEGO Mindstorms EV3. Productive failure yielded comparable learning outcomes and retention as direct instruction. The children in the productive failure condition failed during the first task, on the second task this was less pronounced. A Smileyometer tapped four constructs: self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, perceived importance of goal mastery and the perceived cause of failure. No significant differences were found regarding intrinsic motivation and the perceived cause of failure. The self-efficacy of the children in the productive failure condition was lower compared to self-efficacy of the children in the direct instruction condition before, during and after task 1. With regard to the perceived cause of goal mastery there were significant differences directly after task 1 and directly after task 2. An implication for future research would be to repeat this study with the same materials but with an improved version of this lesson in which both tasks are combined into one, more difficult, task.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:81 education, teaching
Programme:Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/71674
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