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Two idealized instructional approaches to fostering adaptive strategy use: explicit demonstration versus implicit generation

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The article contrasts two idealized learning environments for fostering adaptive use of strategies. The explicit approach reduces cognitive load by demonstrating and practicing strategies with explicit efficiency criteria, building a strategy repertoire and routine execution. The implicit approach capitalizes on the generation effect: children analyze number characteristics, categorize problems as "easy problems", "smart problems" or "other problems", generate their own strategies, and compare their efficiency, with the teacher acting as a mentor who avoids presenting official strategies or preferences. Both environments used the same problems and strategy comparison from the beginning.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Students must be able to generate the target strategies correctly; the article states a necessary condition for the generation effect is that students are able to generate the target information correctly
  • The teacher must avoid setting socio-mathematical norms that implicitly privilege particular strategies

Constraints

  • The generation effect does not hold for strategies too complex for students to generate, such as indirect subtraction and simplifying for third graders

Target Learners

  • primary school students (third grade, 9–10 years old)

Learning Goals

  • adaptive use of computation strategies in multi-digit addition and subtraction

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Aiso Heinze, Julia Arend, Meike Gruessing, Frank Lipowsky. (2018). Instructional approaches to foster third graders' adaptive use of strategies: an experimental study on the effects of two learning environments on multi-digit addition and subtraction. Instr Sci 46:869–891. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-018-9457-1
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id explicit-versus-implicit-strategy-instruction-approaches
title Two idealized instructional approaches to fostering adaptive strategy use: explicit demonstration versus implicit generation
description The article contrasts two idealized learning environments for fostering adaptive use of strategies.
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-18
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — aiso-heinze-2018

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