Slava Kalyuga
The book explores a cognitive load perspective on instructional guidance. Cognitive load theory is focusedon instructional design implications and prescriptions that flow from human cognitive architecture, and ithas become one of the leading theories of instructional design. According to this theoretical perspective,the purpose of instructional guidance is to reduce learner potential cognitive overload by providingappropriate information in the right time and in a suitable format. As the learner’s level of prior knowledgeis considered as the main factor influencing this decision, the effect of learner prior knowledge oneffectiveness of instructional methods (the expertise reversal effect in cognitive load theory) provides thebasic framework for the book.The fully-guided explicit instruction and minimally-guided inquiry (discovery or exploratory) learning areoften discussed in instructional psychology literature as examples of approaches with opposed degrees ofguidance provided to the learners. This book considers the whole range of the levels of guidance (includingintermediate levels) and approaches the problem of balancing learner guidance from a cognitive loadperspective. The significance of this approach is in applying our current knowledge of human cognitivearchitecture to develop an integrated instructional approach bringing together the best features and advantages of explicit instruction and inquirylearning.Both explicit instruction and inquiry learning approaches have been around for long time, and their proponents can produce evidence of theireffectiveness. This evidence needs to be treated within the context of appropriate learning goals in specific instructional settings for specific types oflearners. This book provides an unbiased theoretical framework for managing learner instructional guidance and working principles for selectingappropriate levels and methods of instructional guidance (e.g., sequences of exploratory problems and explicit instruction; forms and levels ofembedded guidance; and adapting methodologies) optimal for learners at different levels of prior knowledge.
