Contrasting cases without explicit guidance on their use showed no significant effect on conceptual understanding or solution-attempt quality¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2020 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Contrasting cases in the problem-solving material did not significantly affect conceptual understanding posttest scores or the quality of solution attempts. → Loibl 2020
Evidence¶
Loibl 2020¶
Loibl, K., Tillema, M., Rummel, N., & van Gog, T. (2020). The effect of contrasting cases during problem solving prior to and after instruction. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-020-09504-7
q3 · i? · causal · r2
ANCOVA on quality of the best solution attempt in the 2×2 experiment (N = 181). Contrasting cases showed no significant effect on quality, and the conceptual posttest contrast PScc-I vs. PS-I was "not significant (p = 0.60)"; the overall contrasting-cases effect on conceptual understanding was F(1, 176) = 2.65, p = 0.11, η2 = 0.02. The authors note that non-significant results can only be interpreted with caution, so this is an absence of a detected effect, not evidence that contrasting cases cannot help.
"In contrast to Hypothesis 3c, the effect of contrasting cases, F(1, 176) = 0.53, p = 0.47, η2 < 0.01, and the interaction effect, F(1, 176) = 2.21, p = 0.14, η2 = 0.01, were not significant"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Teacher interventions that are not explicit encourage learners' self-awareness of the limitations of their current understanding without prescribing a solution — related
- Students who generated their own solutions or observed the full process did not significantly outperform students who only viewed the outcomes of failed solution attempts on conceptual knowledge — related
- PF students reported more awareness of knowledge gaps than example observers, but awareness of knowledge gaps did not correlate with conceptual knowledge acquisition — related
- Prior knowledge moderated the VF-process advantage over PF: the benefit of observing the process grew with prior knowledge, while prior knowledge did not affect post-test performance in the PF condition — related
- Contrasting shows no benefit on translation-recognition posttests in the productive direction — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
unguided-contrasting-cases-no-learning-effect |
title |
Contrasting cases without explicit guidance on their use showed no significant effect on conceptual understanding or solution-attempt quality |
description |
Contrasting cases without explicit guidance on their use showed no significant effect on conceptual understanding or solution-attempt quality |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2020 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-18 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — loibl-2020 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.