Vicarious failure with high solution diversity is as effective as engaging in Productive Failure oneself for conceptual knowledge acquisition¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? VF-high did not differ significantly from PF on conceptual knowledge posttest scores (p =.193), with VF-high descriptively even outperforming PF. → Thomas C. Braas 2025

Evidence¶

Thomas C. Braas 2025¶

Thomas C. Braas, Christian Hartmann, Vincent Hoogerheide, Nikol Rummel, Tamara van Gog. (2025). When is observing failure productive? Investigating the role of solution diversity in vicarious failure. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-025-09706-x

q3 · i? · causal · r2

In the same randomized four-condition experiment, Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc comparison of VF-high versus PF on conceptual knowledge was non-significant; the article reports "did not differ significantly from students who engaged in PF themselves" with d = 0.292 favoring VF-high descriptively.

"students in the VF-high condition, who were presented with a high-diversity modeling example of the PF-generation process, did not differ significantly from students who engaged in PF themselves (p =.193, 95% CI [-0.79, 0.17], Cohen’s d = 0.292), and even outperformed PF in descriptive terms."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• No significant differences among PF, VF-high, VF-low, and DI conditions on procedural knowledge acquisition — related
• Students observing high-diversity vicarious failure (VF-high) significantly outperform students in VF-low and DI conditions on conceptual knowledge — related
• Observing the complete problem-solving-and-failing process (VF-process) was more effective for conceptual knowledge acquisition than generating one's own failed solutions (PF) prior to instruction — 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
• 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
• Diversity of student-generated representations and solution methods is significantly correlated with learning from PF — related
• PF students outperformed direct-instruction students on conceptual understanding and transfer without compromising procedural fluency — related
• Number of canonical components in students' PF solutions correlates with conceptual knowledge, but the range of distinct components does not — related
• Learning the CVS with self-generated, vicarious, combined, or no errors during PS-I does not differentially affect CVS posttest performance when controlling for prior knowledge — related
• Success in developing the canonical solution is not a necessary condition for learning from generation, but failure is not claimed to be indispensable either — related