Hybrid productive failure with analogical comparison: schema abstraction through comparing contrasting models

Design · All designs
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 2 studies (1 causal, 1 qualitative), q2–q3 · 1 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description

The article proposes a hybrid learning design that combines productive failure's two phases (Exploration and Generation, then Consolidation and Knowledge Assembly) with analogical comparison scaffolds. In the exploration phase students compare two highly contrasting computer models that share deep structure, which the authors argue activates structural prior knowledge so that teacher-led consolidation elicits "the cognitive process of schema abstraction" and assembly of new knowledge. The design was operationalized as the Two Models condition, where students "were instructed (i.e., scaffolded) to write out similarities and differences of the models" across climate and non-climate domains.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Two computer models implementing the same underlying complexity principles but from contrasting surface domains
• Explicit scaffolding prompting students to write out similarities and differences between the models
• A teacher-led consolidation phase presenting correct solutions and targeted concepts

Constraints

• The study included no non-PF and no non-computer-model control conditions, so the design's advantage over those alternatives is not tested here
• The schema abstraction account is the authors' proposed explanation for the far transfer finding, not a directly measured process

Target Learners

• ninth-grade secondary science students

Learning Goals

• weather and climate concepts
• complex systems principles such as feedback, emergence, and tipping points
• far across domain transfer of structural concepts

Claims

• Two Models Comparison Far Across Domain Transfer [+M]
• Near Transfer Teacher Expertise Interaction One Model [~M]
• Adult learners perceive AI as supporting consolidation-phase comparison, knowledge reorganization, and transfer [+W]

Related Designs

Examples

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Key Sources

• Jacobson, Michael, Goldwater, Micah, Markauskaite, Lina, Lai, Polly, Kapur, Manu, Roberts, Gareth, & Hilton, Courtney. (2020). Schema abstraction with productive failure and analogical comparison: Learning designs for far across domain transfer. Learning and Instruction, 65, Article number: 101222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101222

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	hybrid-pf-analogical-comparison-schema-abstraction
title	Hybrid productive failure with analogical comparison: schema abstraction through comparing contrasting models
description	The article proposes a hybrid learning design that combines productive failure's two phases (Exploration and Generation, then Consolidation and Knowledge Assembly) with analogical comparison scaffolds.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-23
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — jacobson-2020

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