Sequential effects of high and low guidance on children's early science learning

We describe a microgenetic approach aimed at examining the effect of different sequences of high vs low levels of instructional guidance on students' learning about concepts and procedures associated with simple experimental design - often called the "Control of Variables Strategy (CVS). Third-grade children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which CVS was taught via one of the four possible orderings of high or low instructional guidance: (High + High, High + Low, Low + High, and Low + Low). High guidance consisted of a combination of direct instruction and inquiry questions, whereas low guidance was comprised only of inquiry questions. Contrary to commonly held beliefs that high levels of guidance, and in particular, direct instruction, lead only to shallow learning, results show that repeated instances of high instructional guidance were advantageous for both learning and transfer of CVS. Moreover, the High + High group continued to demonstrate strong conceptual understanding of CVS relative to other groups five months after training. Overall the study suggests that strong amounts of instructional guidance are capable of exhibiting powerful effects on children's early science learning.