Designing for novice

Expertise · little or no prior knowledge of the target · All situations

141 rows from 131 pages say what to change when the brief's expertise is novice; 123 of them cite a claim. Pages whose rows cite claims come first. Read the basis before relying on a row: many carry a claim to learners or settings it did not test, and say so.

Sequencing

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are absolute novices and the task's parts interact heavily (several decisions at once) (from the wording)	Practise the two or three hardest parts in isolation first, then join them in a whole task within the same week	Part-task practice reduces cognitive load for absolute novices during initial skill acquisition. [~M] (one experiment; the joining step is untested)
Goal is a procedure, novice learners, an immediate test	Show a worked example before the first problem, then alternate example and problem	Example–problem sequences reduce cognitive load and improve learning outcomes [+M] (secondary-school novices, circuit troubleshooting, immediate test); the advantage was not detected at the final test with identical pairs (identical pairs [~M])
Beginners in a foreign or second language (from the wording)	Start with listening comprehension and relax demands for speaking at first; bring reading and writing in after learners understand the spoken forms they will read	listening first [+W] (a review reporting Postovsky's experiments second-hand); reading cannot exceed listening [+W] and oral language predicts reading [+W] (both reported second-hand from first-language work, no data printed)

Anchored Instruction

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the concept the anchor is meant to carry (from the wording)	Make the concept available explicitly (a short explanation or modelled step) before or alongside the work in the anchor	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [-M]
The anchor's problem needs several new interacting ideas at once and learners are complete beginners (from the wording)	Isolate one component first, then return to the whole anchor	Part-task practice reduces load for absolute novices [~W]

Clear Structure

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and can build or study a concept map	Have them construct a node-link map of the material, or study a prepared one; constructing gave the larger effect	Graphic organizers support novice comprehension [+M]
Novices meeting new technical vocabulary in a fast-moving tutorial (from the wording)	Add brief definitions, staged progression and checkpoints that test understanding before moving on	Definitions, checkpoints and staged pacing improved clarity for novices [+W]

Cognitive Load Management

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
A complex whole task that novices cannot yet coordinate (from the wording)	Teach the interacting parts in isolation first, then combine them in the whole task	Isolated parts first helped novices on complex tasks [+M]
Novices learning a structured problem type (mathematics, science procedures) (from the wording)	Begin with worked examples before unaided problems	Worked examples improve mathematics performance [+M]

Cognitive Load Theory

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on a multi-step procedure (from the wording)	Open with a full worked example, not a problem: examples only or example–problem pairs, then problems; use full worked examples rather than completion problems at first	Example-first sequences beat problem-first ones for novices on an immediate test, with lower rated effort [+M]; Lower-prior-knowledge learners did better with full than completion examples [+M]
A complex whole task that novices cannot yet coordinate (from the wording)	Teach the interacting parts separately first, then the whole task	Isolated parts first helped novices on complex tasks [+M]

Problem-Based Learning

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the content the problem needs (from the wording)	At step 2, teach the content first or alongside (short explanation, worked example, a short text to read before the group discusses the problem) and use the problem to apply it	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [-M]; Elaborating without relevant prior knowledge lowered recall [-M] (one experiment, university students)
Learners are absolute novices and the problem has many interacting parts (from the wording)	Before the whole problem, give short practice on its key parts in isolation, then pose the integrated problem	Part-task practice helped absolute novices on high-interactivity material [~M] (one experiment, not in PBL)

Simulations & Immersive Virtual Environments

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task or system	Add a 5–10 minute primer on parts and terms; start with a simplified scenario framed in concrete, familiar terms; give a goal and prompts during every run; never begin with free exploration	Pretraining learners on a system's key parts and terms before the main lesson improved knowledge and real-world transfer in one VR experiment [+M]; Assimilator learners gained significantly more in the VR (guided exploration) mode [+M] (one experiment; the learners' ages are not stated on the claim page); concrete framing from Concrete-task participants achieved higher performance success than intermediate-task participants in simulation-based inquiry [~W] (first-year students, one experiment)
Learners' prior knowledge of the domain differs (novice vs advanced)	Give novices worked examples of an experiment or case before they run; give advanced learners reflection phases after the run; do not rely on prompts alone	Prior knowledge moderates scaffolding effectiveness [~M]; Presence versus absence of individual scaffolding types did not support the added-value hypothesis, but scaffolding combinations partly did [~M] (higher education)

Universal Design For Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this content	Curate options to two or three; integrate representations rather than offering many in parallel; model each choice before asking for it	Instructional guidance that helps novices can become redundant or counterproductive as expertise grows. [~M] and Multiple representations improve learning [~M] (benefit depends on skill at connecting representations); bounding the number of options is untested
Learners are adult or professionals, including older beginners or learners with disabilities (from the wording)	Ask learners which barriers they meet; keep individual accommodations; offer formats drawn from their own work	modifications may be necessary for older beginners and learners with disabilities [~W] (one practitioner's judgment, adult ESL)

4C/ID (Four-Component Instructional Design)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are complete novices and the task has many interacting elements (from the wording)	Start with brief practice on isolated elements, then move to the whole task	Part-task practice reduces load for novices [+M]

Active Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are meeting the topic for the first time (novice)	Give a worked example or short explanation before the task, and scaffolds and feedback during it; do not leave learners to discover the key content unaided	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [~M]

AI Tutoring

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices in the domain (from the wording)	Step-based tutoring with contingent hints and worked steps available; a coach or tutor agent rather than open chat	Agents as coaches and tutors are most useful with novices [~M]; Guidance that helps novices becomes redundant with expertise [~S]

Always report and interpret effect sizes alongside p values for primary outcomes

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
The reader is a teacher, leader or purchaser, novice at statistics, or has low confidence with numbers	Lead with one sentence in percentile points or raw-score difference on a test they know, then the d and its interval; keep the p value in a note	The guide treats an effect size of +0.25 or higher as substantively important, equivalent to raising performance at least 10 percentile points [+W] (a reporting convention, not tested with readers)

Analogical Reasoning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices in the domain of the cases (from the wording)	Use comparison; the experiments recorded here used novice undergraduates (negotiation) and seventh graders (algebra). Supply both cases rather than relying on a source they are assumed to know	Analogical reasoning improves transfer [+M]; Comparing cases side by side improves learning and transfer [+M]

Annotating

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the topic and have no criteria for what matters	Give the reading purpose and three to five margin codes (?, claim, evidence), mark the first paragraph together, and check that the marks fall on the main claims before readers go on alone	Test performance follows whatever is underlined, relevant or not [~M] (67 college freshmen, immediate test); the codes and the check are untested proposals

Assessment for Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices, or the tasks are unfamiliar (from the wording)	Train self-assessment with modelling examples before relying on it, and check self-ratings against scored work	Self-assessment accuracy is low without training [~M]; Prior knowledge needed for accurate self-assessment [~M]

Authentic Assessment

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain (first course, first placement)	Spend the first half of the unit on component practice with worked examples; use a simpler, well-structured version of the task for the first draft; plan two revision cycles; give feedback on each component before the whole task.	Guided rather than unassisted discovery [~S]; its studies did not use authentic assessment tasks, and the meta-analysis does not break results down by prior knowledge

Authentic Audiences & Purposes

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice writers who write as if for the teacher	Add an audience-analysis step before drafting: who will read it, what they already know, and therefore what background must be given	Audience prior knowledge determines information density [+W] (an argument); Skilled EFL writers keep readers in mind [+W] (nine skilled writers, no comparison)

Autonomy

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are new to the task (novice) and the brief asks for wide choice	Offer two or three options that target the same objective, model how to choose, and widen the options as unsupported performance improves; state process goals (the steps to attend to) early, outcome goals once the skill holds	bounded choice is an untested proposal, bounded by connectivist courses [~M]; Process goals beat outcome goals for novices [~M] (assigned goals, carried to choice untested)

Balanced pronunciation curriculum covering suprasegmentals, segmentals, and fluency, with a short list of central features selected by diagnosis

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are beginners (novice) with limited vocabulary	Start with segmentals and word stress on words they already know; use ASR read-aloud for segmentals; keep communicative tasks short and scripted at first.	Fluspeak [~W] (good results for beginners on phonemes; one program, reported second-hand); CAPT [~S]

Cognitive Activation

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice for this relation	Open with one worked example or short explanation; then a single, narrow "why" prompt per step; give a model answer after each attempt; no open discovery task first.	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices than explicit instruction [~S]

Cognitive Disequilibrium

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Novices meet the problem before any instruction, with no support (from the wording)	Add scaffolding to the attempt so that confusion and surprise lead somewhere; unscaffolded attempts produced more confusion, and emotions related to transfer differently by condition	Emotion dynamics predict learning in a way that depends on scaffolding [~M]

Cognitive Flexibility

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Expertise novice in the domain, high element interactivity	Start with one case and part tasks; add the second and third case only after the simple version is completed unaided; prompt the named dimension of comparison.	Part-task practice reduces cognitive load for absolute novices during initial skill acquisition. [~M]; population not reported on the claim page

Cognitive Styles

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task, or advanced	Novice: give the structure or worked model to all, regardless of style. Advanced: drop the frame and check the approach on one unaided task; prior knowledge, not style, sets how much guidance to give	Instructional guidance that helps novices can become redundant or counterproductive as expertise grows. [~S] (cognitive-load studies; does not address styles)

Coherence Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content, and the explanation has many interacting parts	Apply the audit at full strength, and expect it to matter most here	Design principle effects moderated by pacing and complexity [~M] (g = 0.70 complex, 0.20 simple, across principles); Multimedia principles benefit novices [~M]

Collaborative Evaluation

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain (cannot yet tell strong from weak work unaided)	Use anchor exemplars with known quality, three or four criteria with described levels, teacher modelling each session, and the reference comparison after every round; keep criteria to what learners can see in the object. Delay judging classmates' work until alone judgments of anchors are within a level.	Prior knowledge and self-assessment [~M] and self-assessment accuracy [~M], both about judging one's own performance, carried to judging others'

Combine intentional and incidental vocabulary learning rather than relying on incidental learning alone

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the language (beginners, below about the first thousand words)	Lead with deliberate study (about two thirds of vocabulary time); use graded or simplified texts with most unknown words glossed; check coverage on a 100-word sample before any text	Correct word inference in reading requires knowing roughly 95-98% of surrounding words… [+M] (second-hand, one review); ratio untested

Competency-Based Assessment

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the task being judged (from the wording)	Frame early attempts and feedback around the process criteria (the steps and strategy), and judge against the outcome threshold once the process is in place; withdraw prompts across attempts before the judgement that counts	Process goals outperform outcome goals for novices [~M] (high-school writers learning one revision skill; a goal-setting finding carried to assessment criteria); Fading support transfers responsibility [~M]

Concept Attainment

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain (cannot yet name the parts of an instance)	Teach what the instances are first; keep two or three candidate attributes and give the checklist; use only clear exemplars until the rule is stable; give feedback on each classification and state the rule soon after the induction rather than waiting for the class to find it.	Guided against unguided discovery [~S]; the meta-analysis does not break results down by prior knowledge

Concreteness Fading

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices who cannot yet say what the symbols mean (from the wording)	Use all three stages, with the links in steps 3–4	Fading condition outperformed generic and concrete conditions [+W]; Manipulatives require connection to concept [+M]

Considering The Opposite

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain, or their alternatives are implausible	Supply the alternative (a rival explanation, a second case, the common misconception) and ask learners to make its best case, side by side with their own; drop to self-generated alternatives only when they meet the threshold in the arc above	Comparing cases side by side improves learning [+M] (carried from case comparison; not a test of this move); expertise reversal [~M] (review of cognitive-load studies; the reverse case)

Constructive Alignment

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the assessed tasks	Add a worked or modelled example and at least one practised attempt with feedback per outcome before the graded task; show an exemplar against the criteria.	Practice presence [+M] for including practice (undergraduates, one computer-based lesson); the per-outcome dose and exemplar are untested proposals

Contiguity Principle (Spatial and Temporal)

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Novice learners; a diagram with a separate legend, or text on another page or screen (from the wording)	Put labels on the diagram parts and the text beside the region it explains, all on one page or screen	Split attention degrades learning [+M] (g = 0.63, 58 comparisons)

Criterion- and Norm-Referenced Testing

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
The decision is what to teach next for novice learners early in a domain	Use short criterion-referenced checks on the first skills in the teaching order, three to five items per skill; report mastered / not yet per skill; no percentiles	Items should represent essential skills in a teaching hierarchy [+W] (an argument about reading tests, carried to other domains)

Cultural & Life Experiences Connections

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content and have little experience related to it	Teach the concept explicitly first, with one familiar context as the example; ask for learners' own contexts only after they can explain the concept once	Advance organizers aided learning in a 1980 meta-analysis, but activating prior topic knowledge did not improve primary pupils' text comprehension in one experiment [~M] (carried from topic-knowledge activation in reading to cultural connection)

Debriefing

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task (first simulations, first placements)	Facilitator-led throughout; give the criterion or a model performance before analysis; ask about cues and steps, not outcomes; name what the expert would have noticed; one change each, stated as an action	Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [+M] (high-school writing revision, carried to debrief focus); Self Assessment Accuracy Is Low Without Training [~M]

Deliberate Practice

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this task, at first exposure	Do not isolate components yet: model the whole task, use guided practice with support, and set process goals; start targeted refinement only once the learner can perform unaided	Instructional guidance that helps novices can become redundant or counterproductive as expertise grows. [~M] (review of cognitive-load studies, carried to skill refinement); process goals for novices [~M]

Develop Understanding

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this idea	Keep steps 2–3 in full: explain first, two or three worked cases with explanation prompts and sentence starters before any case learners work alone; give hints in response to their explanations.	Explicit instruction against unassisted discovery [+S]; the meta-analysis does not break results down by prior knowledge

Digital Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task	Use items close to worked examples, the full cue–hint–worked-step ladder, an explanation prompt every three to five items, and feedback on every item	Contingent scaffolding improves learning more than fixed or absent support. [~M] (one-to-one tutoring, carried to software)

Discussing Race

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the topic, or describe their subject as neutral and see race as irrelevant to it	Start from a shared data set or case in the subject itself where outcomes differ by race, and ask what explains the difference; do not open with identity or experience. Name race plainly when the data show it, even if learners call it culture or background; some learners will judge the connection inappropriate, so record that as an observation and keep naming it in the analysis	Interviewed introductory statistics students often described the subject as neutral, many saw the courseware's neutrality as appropriate, and some did not discern explicit racial or cultural inclusion in it [~W] (undergraduate statistics interviews; a limit on, not a test of, the move)

Dual Coding

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this content	Supply a complete, labelled visual first, with linking prompts; then ask for a drawing of named parts and relations, keeping a partly completed diagram for a learner who cannot start	Graphic organizers for novices [~M] (lower-ability learners benefited from maps, higher-ability did not, in small, low-powered subsets)

Educators should act as mediators and facilitators of learning rather than content disseminators

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the target and cannot begin a representative task	Keep a short explanation and one worked example before the task; give prompts and feedback during it; do not leave the key idea to be found	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices than explicit instruction [~S] (its table counts 13 distinct studies)

Elaboration Theory

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and the content is high in element interactivity	Keep the epitome very short (two or three ideas); pre-teach the one or two elements it depends on in isolation, then present the epitome; make each level small and end it with a learner-built synthesis.	Isolated parts first, for novices [~M] (one experiment; sample and horizon not reported on the claim page)

Elaborative Reasoning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on a calculation, rule or procedure	Explain it or show a worked example first; put prompts on the steps of the example; do not replace a second reading with why-prompts on a lesson met cold	Elaborative interrogation produced lower posttest accuracy than reading the lesson twice in a written lesson on posterior probability [-M] (undergraduates, one written lesson)

Emergent Curriculum

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content the thread leads into	Keep the topic theirs but teach the content inside it explicitly: short demonstrations, worked examples or a visitor's explanation at the point learners need them, with feedback on what they make.	Unassisted discovery [~S]: 5 distinct studies in its table; carried from discovery and inquiry tasks to an interest-led thread

Employ flexible error treatment strategies matched to objectives, competence, affect, and correction effectiveness

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice with the form, or low proficiency	Give the correct form plus a one-line rule; avoid bare codes, underlines or rising-intonation prompts until the form has been taught	Direct and metalinguistic feedback with explanations beat control at the immediate posttest; code-only did not [+M] (low-intermediate Korean EFL learners, written feedback, four sessions); code-only caught up two weeks later [~M], so the gap is in the short term

Engagement

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task and withdraw after early failure	Shorten steps, give a worked example first, set process goals; do not add hooks or rewards	Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [~M] (high-school writing revision); the step-size move is untested

Epistemic Games

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice to the practice	Open each session with a mentor modelling one decision aloud; one decision type per early session; feedback with the reason after every decision; fade prompts only when a learner justifies unprompted.	Guided against unguided discovery [~S], carried from classroom and laboratory studies to games

Experience with Languaging Activities (ELAs) guided by a sequence of experience-based questions

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content, or the text is hard for them	Give the meaning of key terms and the gist first; make step 2 a checked account (compare with the text) rather than free recall; give a stem for every step for longer (sessions 1–5); correct each "learned" answer against the named idea.	Activation [~S] and activation instructions [~M]: topic activation alone did not help (primary pupils; one other experiment), carried to this routine

Experiential Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the target task	Teach or demonstrate the key idea first, with a worked example; narrow the experience to one or two variables; supply the reflection prompts and the vocabulary for naming the concept; check an unaided step before removing support	Unassisted discovery produces less learning than explicit instruction, while discovery enhanced with guidance outperforms other instruction [~S]; tested on discovery tasks, school and mixed domains, not on placements

Experiential Learning Cycle

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the target task	Demonstrate the first loop's task with a worked example before the experience; let one or two variables vary; supply the debrief prompts and the vocabulary for stating the principle; check each learner's rule before the retry; keep this support for at least the first two loops.	Guided against unassisted discovery [~S]; discovery tasks with mostly school learners and mixed domains, not placements or simulations; the meta-analysis does not break results down by prior knowledge

Explicit Instruction: Vocabulary

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are second-language learners, novice in the language	Gloss unfamiliar words in the text (first-language or picture glosses), teach the most frequent words first, and do not rely on inference from context until most surrounding words are known	Glossing yields medium-to-large positive effects on L2 vocabulary learning… [+W] (second-hand report of meta-analyses); Correct word inference in reading requires knowing roughly 95–98% of surrounding words… [~W] (second-hand); Proficiency moderates gloss effects… [~M] (one EFL study: benefits at middle proficiency levels only); first-language glosses: All three L1 gloss conditions significantly improve immediate vocabulary recall… [+M] and, from the same study of 135 Taiwanese undergraduates, only the gloss-with-L2-example and in-text gloss forms held on all three recall tests (Only L1-gloss-L2-ex and L1-in-text-gloss conditions… [~M]), so prefer those to marginal glosses where retention matters

Feedback Loops

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task	Run the loop for them: task-level information on every attempt, a matched retry at once, the step re-modelled after two failed cycles	Contingent scaffolding [+M] (children, one-to-one, long division)

Fostering Communities of Learning (FCL)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain	Teach the core ideas directly before research; give each research group a short, pre-selected source pack and a note frame; check each group's understanding before jigsaw.	Guided against unguided discovery [~S]: explicit instruction beat unassisted discovery, guided discovery beat other instruction; the meta-analysis does not break results down by prior knowledge, and is not of this pattern

Free-Choice Learning Environment Design

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the topic, or have low confidence or low literacy	Keep the first action wordless; narrow the choice to two or three challenges at first; offer a worked starter project to copy and change; let a facilitator or peer start alongside	Moderate agency in game-based learning [~W] (second-hand report of one game study: moderate agency beat none and high); connectivist courses [~W] (open online courses, second-hand: not all could direct themselves). Both carried to this setting

Game-based Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the target task	Add one or two worked examples or a modelled round before unaided play and again between rounds; keep game controls minimal	Worked examples between rounds, puzzle game [~M]; tested with university students, untested with children

Gamification

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices, or the material is complex	Strip theme, animation and decoration from the screen while items are worked; celebrate only between levels	Seductive details [~M] (school and university readers, not gamified); cognitive overload [~M]
Learners are uncomfortable choosing (some high power-distance settings, anxious novices) (from the wording)	Offer two options with a recommended default rather than an open menu	untested; noted in the autonomy claim [~W]'s Discussion with no study recorded

Goal Setting & Monitoring

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task (new procedure, first attempts); or intermediate/advanced	Novices: process goals naming the strategy steps, split into proximal sub-goals, outcome goals only once the process runs unprompted. Experienced learners: outcome goals with a stated criterion, which they may set or negotiate (learner-set goals are an untested proposal)	Process goals for novices [+M]; tested with high-school writers, untested in other domains

Graphic Organizers

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Goal is conceptual-understanding or transfer from a demanding text, with novice readers (from the wording)	Give a complete, author-built organizer with the text rather than asking for construction; add explanation prompts on its links	Learner-constructed graphic organizers are not shown to outperform provided ones: the one direct test, with college readers, favoured provided organizers on transfer [~M] (college readers, three experiments; transfer favoured provided organizers)

Harmonize opposites: strike a balance between competing educational ideas rather than embracing one method wholesale

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content (low baseline on both knowledge and application)	Weight early sessions toward the knowledge-serving method (about 20 of 45 minutes), shifting to application later; check knowledge before handing over	The problem-based group achieved significantly larger content-knowledge gains, while the simulation group made no knowledge gains [+M] (54 seventh and eighth graders, one 4-week trial); the shift across weeks is untested

Holistic Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and the content is high in element interactivity	Keep the first whole to two or three ideas; pre-teach the one or two elements it depends on in a short isolated segment, then present the whole in the same session; make each later part small	Part-task practice for novices [~M] (one experiment; sample and horizon not reported); pretraining [+M] (one VR lesson, carried to other content)

Inquiry-based Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the target relation or on the inquiry move (designing a fair test, reading a graph) (from the wording)	Teach or model the relation and the move before or alongside the investigation; do not leave essential content to be discovered unaided. Where the apparatus or procedure has many interacting parts, let novices practise the parts before the whole investigation	Unassisted discovery learns less than explicit instruction; guided discovery does better [+M]; Enhanced discovery beats other instruction (d = 0.30) [+M]; Part-task practice reduces load for absolute novices [+M] (one experiment outside inquiry)

Instructor Accessibility

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the course's tasks	Schedule contact (a booked slot or a required check of the first attempt) rather than waiting to be asked, and answer with prompts before explanations	Contingent scaffolding improves learning more than fixed or absent support. [+M] (one-to-one tutoring; not a test of access)

Journaling

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
novice to the content or the practice (first-year students, first placement)	Two or three specific prompts per entry with sentence starters; every "I understand" line followed by one check item scored against a key; teacher reply on a rotating sample in the first weeks.	Self Assessment Accuracy Is Low Without Training [~M] (secondary and university students); structured reflection [+M] (first-year engineering students, school writing-to-learn)

Keep the learner in control of the information flow with on-demand tools and supports

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the language, following little of the scene even with helps	Use shorter scenes (under two minutes) or easier material; open the first-language glossary and captions from the first pass; keep step 8 to the gist (who, where, what happened)	Proficiency moderates gloss effects: vocabulary benefits appear at Levels 2 and 3 but not Levels 1 and 4 [~M] (EFL undergraduates; no benefit at the lowest level)

Knowledge Organization

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this topic, holding unconnected facts	Give the organization complete at first, with sorting tasks; move to partial frames only after they rebuild the top level from memory	A hierarchical internal knowledge organization facilitates performance on complex recall and problem-solving tasks more than a single-level organization of the same knowledge [+M] (college physics, one report)

Learning by Producing (multimedia production as learning)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content	Teach the essential content explicitly first (step 2), provide the sources, use a blueprint template with one scene filled in, fix the product to 2 minutes, and check content individually before production.	Minimal guidance and novices [~S]; tested on discovery and inquiry, carried to production

Learning-for-Use (LfU) Model

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain (cannot read the task's data or terms)	Teach the task's vocabulary and representations before the motivating attempt; keep the attempt to 10–15 minutes; give a structured investigation procedure and a teacher-led synthesis every session; fade only after the second unit.	Minimal guidance [~S]; part-task practice [~M] for high-element-interactivity tasks

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain, or have not studied online alone before	Shorten segments to 3–5 minutes with worked examples; keep the start- and end-of-week prompts all course with model answers for the first three weeks; teach learners how to use the prompts in week 1 (one worked example of a plan and a self-check); give the reduced route early.	Metacognitive prompts [~M]: in the online review, lower-prior-knowledge learners in one study needed training before prompts helped; carried to MOOCs

Match the form and content of staff development interventions to clients' assessed Stages of Concern

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Most people have not used the innovation yet (novice for this innovation)	Lead with clear information, visits and examples of the innovation in use, and individual reassurance; hold back detailed logistics and student-outcome data until use begins	concerns shifted from nonuser towards user profiles after a two-week workshop [+M] (one science curriculum, elementary teachers, no comparison group)

Memory Consolidation

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this material	Keep the opening recall close to how it was taught, with answers shown at once; group the material into a few units before recall; plan returns at short gaps first	Chunking reduces working memory load by grouping information into fewer, more meaningful units. [~S] (reviews and lab experiments on immediate memory; carried to recall planning, untested); gap choice in Spaced Learning

Mentoring and Coaching

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the role: first-year teachers, apprentices, new graduate students	Weekly contact at first; put instruction or the core practice, not logistics, at the centre of each meeting; observe early	Strong mentoring is linked to novice elementary teachers being 25 percentage points more likely to plan to remain in the same school, with a similar but non-significant pattern for high school teachers [+W] (survey, plans to stay); Comprehensive teacher induction generated no significant improvements in novice teachers' classroom practices in the first year [-M] (randomised; do not promise first-year gains in practice)

Modality Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
System-paced video, narrated animation or lecture, novice learners, words explain the picture	Narrate the words; keep only labels or key terms on screen	Spoken narration rather than on-screen text alongside graphics improves learning [+S] (Ginns d = 0.72; Noetel g = 0.38, 0.20 after bias correction); pacing [+M] (d = 0.93 system-paced); strongest when the pace is fast for the learner (boundary conditions [~M])

Motivation

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task and withdraw after early failure	Treat expectancy as the low component: an item they can do first, process goals, feedback naming the strategy that worked; hold back rewards and hooks	Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [+M] (high-school writing revision); self-efficacy predicts persistence [+M] (predictive reviews, not a test of the move)

Multimedia Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
The lesson explains a process or system, and learners are novice on it	Add a picture that depicts the process or structure the words describe; keep it to the parts the words name, and say what job it does, since an image added without one may change nothing	Words with pictures against words alone [+M] (two lab experiments, immediate test); words with corresponding graphics beat words alone on transfer [+M] (Mayer's programme, 11 of 11 comparisons, median d = 1.39). Against: an instructional image added to biology texts changed neither test scores nor monitoring accuracy [-M] (163 and 48 undergraduates online, d = 0.01 and 0.06), and graphs did not improve vector-calculus problem solving [-M] (36 engineering-physics students, 56% against 52% correct)

Multimodal Instruction

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this content and unfamiliar with its representations; or advanced	Novice: use words plus one visual type. Teach how to read it first (what the axes, arrows or symbols mean), add one explicit translation prompt per idea, and hold back a second visual type until learners can read the first. Advanced: cut to the most efficient representation, drop duplicating modes, and use translation tasks for checking rather than teaching.	Novice: multiple representations [~M] (the review ties the benefit to representational competence). Advanced: untested proposal (the claim pages discuss expertise reversal; no entry here tests it for modes)

Multiple Methods of Assessment

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the goal and new to judging quality	Teacher-chosen methods; criteria with an example of each level; postpone learner choice of format and self-assessment that counts until learners have practised judging two or three examples	Self Assessment Accuracy Is Low Without Training [~M] (secondary students, one randomised experiment; a higher-education meta-analysis read as an abstract)

PAIR-C Framework (Pattern, Agents, Interactions, Relations, Causality)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain and with simulations	Add a 10-minute guided run of the interface before step 4; keep a prompt for every dimension through session 2; state the correct account at the end of session 1 rather than waiting for learners to reach it.	Guidance in inquiry [+M], across inquiry studies, not this pattern

Pairing Non-examples with Examples

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and cannot yet recognise a correct case	Teach with correct examples only for the first session; add one near-miss pair at the end only if they can explain a correct case; name the deciding feature for them rather than waiting	Example-first sequences [~M] (secondary-school novices, circuits; carried, not a test of non-examples); the novice caution is a precaution on the erroneous-examples claim [~M], not a finding

Personalization

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this task, or advanced / already succeed on the first item	Novice: more worked steps and closer items, fewer choices. Advanced: skip guided sections after an unaided check and go to harder or transfer items	Instructional guidance that helps novices can become redundant or counterproductive as expertise grows. [~M] (review of cognitive-load studies; gives no crossover point)

Positive Self-talk

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on a new skill with steps (a procedure, a technique)	Write instructional cues that name the steps, as process phrases; model and rehearse them; prompt at the step that fails	Self Talk Improves Learning And Performance [+S] (sport; larger on novel tasks); Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [~M] (writing revision, about goals)

Practice with Simulated People

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices in this kind of encounter (novice)	Start with a modelled example, shown as a dialogue rather than a narration, and rubric prompts; move to self-assessment and reflection phases only after they meet the standard on a new scenario	Prior knowledge moderated which scaffold helped [~M]; agents as coaches most useful for novices [~M]; overheard dialogue beat monologue [+W] (one experiment, reported in a review)

Pre-reading Questioning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Readers are novice on the topic and will know almost none of the answers	Keep the attempt-before-reading step; tell them most guesses will be wrong; keep to two or three questions	Pretesting enhances learning [+M] (undergraduates, items answered at floor, laboratory)

Pre-training Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on a system with many unfamiliar parts or terms (equipment, anatomy, a mechanism, a geological process)	Give the primer: name, location and behaviour of each component, before the main lesson	Pretraining principle: pre-lessons on names, locations, and characteristics of key components improve transfer [+M] (5 of 5 experiments, median d = 0.85)

Pretesting (Prequestions Before Study)

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the topic and will know almost none of the answers	Use the pretest as designed; say that wrong guesses are expected	Pretesting enhances learning [+S] (undergraduates, items answered at floor, laboratory)

Problem-based Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices on the content the problem needs (from the wording)	Make that content explicit (explanation, worked examples) before or alongside the problem; leaving it to be found unsupported learns less	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [-M]; Worked examples reduce novice search [+M]

Procedural Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
The procedure has many interacting steps and learners are novice	Teach the hardest steps in isolation for one or two short rounds, then join them on a simple whole task in the same or next session; never leave the parts unjoined	Part-task practice reduces cognitive load for absolute novices during initial skill acquisition. [+M]; joining: whole-task argument [~W] (no experiment)

Process-based Writing

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Peers are novices as reviewers (from the wording)	Train them on example texts with the criteria first; ask them to point to the place in the text and say what a reader would experience; teacher checks a sample	peer reviewer accuracy and helpfulness [~M] (secondary writers, correlational); rubrics and peer reviewers [~M] (online, two quasi-experiments; one found less reflective comments)

Productive Failure

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novices with little prior knowledge of the domain, and the problem cannot be attempted without it (from the wording)	Teach first, or give the minimum prior knowledge before the attempt; an attempt with nothing to generate from is minimal guidance, not productive failure	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices than explicit instruction [-M]; Expertise reversal [~W] (the balance between generating and being told shifts with prior knowledge; a narrative review)

Professional development should guide teachers on integrating digital content and tools, not just offer technical know-how

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Teachers are new to the tool or have low confidence with technology (novice)	Keep step 2 and make it longer (two short sessions, one function each), with a printed step-by-step card and a buddy; plan the first lesson around one function only	Single-tool, step-by-step trainings produced uptake where multi-tool trainings did not [~M] (one coach's report)

Programmed Instruction

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain	Smallest steps; rule then examples then incomplete examples; a cue on every early frame; remedial branch after two errors of one kind; remove cues over three sessions (dose table above).	Rule-example sequence [~W] (an argument from early programmed-instruction work, not a test); step sizes untested

Project Space and Instructional Space

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain	Plan freeze points at every predictable gap from the starting check; keep project segments short (about 20–30 minutes); break complex routines into parts in the instructional space before whole use; give a worked example of each milestone.	Unguided search learns less than explicit instruction [+S]; part-task practice for novices [+M] (one experiment)

Quiet Learning Spaces

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on a demanding text or problem	Run the full protected block with device rule and a separate talk space; keep the task short enough to finish in the block	Interesting but irrelevant details can impair comprehension and transfer, with effects that vary with the material and the learner [~M] (irrelevant material inside lessons, harm larger for lower working memory and lower attentional inhibition; carried from materials to surroundings, untested)

Redundancy Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
A narrated animation, screencast or explainer video carries the full narration as on-screen text, for novice learners	Remove the on-screen transcript; keep narration, picture and a few key terms on the picture	Redundancy principle (Mayer 2008) [+M] (5 of 5 experiments, median d = 0.72, transfer); Redundant on-screen text competing with a visualization [~M]

Reflection

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
novice to the task (first placements, first problem sets)	Give a rubric row or an exemplar pair before asking for evaluation; prompts name process steps ("which step?") rather than "how did it go?"; check a sample of self-ratings against a scored result before relying on them.	Self-assessment accuracy [~M]; tested with secondary and university students. Process focus: process goals for novices [~M], goals set before practice by high-school students, not reflection

Rhetorical Skill Development

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice or struggling writers	Teach one move at a time with a modelled demonstration and a process goal, and keep goals as process goals to the end of the course (the next goal is the next move, not the audience's verdict); run strategy teaching over at least three sessions; keep the model text visible during practice	Strategy Instruction Improves Writing Quality [+M] (grades 4–10; struggling writers gained more); Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [+M] (high-school students)

Scaffolding

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Prompts are delivered in a computer module to novices (from the wording)	Write the prompts as text rather than diagrams, and do not judge the format by practice accuracy alone: text prompts gave more correct first attempts, pictorial prompts more correct second attempts, and text prompts gave higher near transfer and stronger reported continuing motivation in the same 51-learner experiment. Far transfer was at the floor in every condition, so the study says nothing about far transfer	Textual prompts give better near transfer than pictorial [+M]; First- and second-attempt accuracy differ by prompt format [~M]; Textual prompts yield stronger continuing motivation [+M]; Far transfer was at the floor in every condition [~M]

Segmenting Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
A narrated animation or explanatory video of a process, for learners new to it (novice)	Cut it at each step into segments with a continue control	Segmenting improves multimedia learning [+M]; segmenting principle [+M] (3 of 3 experiments, median d = 0.98)

Self-Directed Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content	Teach the content explicitly with worked examples first; hand over only pace and choice of practice task; start the regulation routine (step 3) on that practice	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices than explicit instruction [~S] (unassisted discovery against explicit instruction; carried here to learner-directed study, which it did not test as such)

Self-Directed Learning

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content	Stay in Stage A for at least the first unit; write process goals, not score goals; give two set resources, not a menu; model a self-check on a worked example before any self-rating.	Process goals outperform outcome goals for novices [+S] (high-school writing; carried to other content); self-assessment is low without training [~S]

Self-monitoring

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task, or low achievers	Use a printed process checklist, checks that are tests (answer a question, rework a step) not ratings, every record co-checked in the first two sessions, and more sessions at the shared stage before hand-over	Prior Knowledge Needed For Accurate Self Assessment [~M] (synthesis of 22 meta-analyses; undergraduates' exam predictions); Process goals lead to better skill acquisition for novices than outcome goals. [~M] (writing revision, high school)

Self-Regulated Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are new to the content (novice)	Do not rely on their self-ratings yet: give a short content probe, then model self-assessment on a worked example against the criterion before asking them to rate their own work	Self-assessment accuracy is low without training [~M]; Prior knowledge is needed for accurate self-assessment [~M]; in AI-assisted writing, a calibration-training condition gave the lowest self-assessment error and overconfidence, and adding a feedback-literacy script did not improve on it: APCA improved self-assessment accuracy [~M]

Signaling Principle

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are new to the content (novice) and the material is a complex multimedia lesson	Use the full default design: overview, headings, one cued element per screen, colour links between words and picture	Signaling improves learning [+S] (d = 0.38 over 29 experiments; g = 0.43, k = 209)

Skills Sprint

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the component skills	Do not start with the sprint. Teach the components with worked examples or part-task practice first; run the first sprint on a smaller deliverable, with process criteria and a coach at every checkpoint	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices than explicit instruction [-S]; Part-task practice reduces cognitive load for absolute novices during initial skill acquisition. [~M]; both carried to sprints from other tasks

Social Presence

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
novice learners on the content, afraid of being wrong in public	Have them post first in their small group or as a draft that peers comment on before the whole class sees it; the instructor replies to the attempt, not only to the correct posts; in live sessions, collect answers anonymously to the group while the instructor can still see who wrote each, then move to named discussion once errors have been seen to be safe	Anonymous real-time sharing of student responses mitigates evaluation apprehension (authors' account) [~W] (an undergraduate physics course; the authors' argument, not tested; anonymity trades against being seen as a person, so it is a way in, not the end state); the rest untested

Structured Peer Review

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Reviewers are novice in the genre or domain	Run collaborative evaluation on two anchors first; give three criteria with described levels and sentence frames; one draft per reviewer; the teacher reads and returns a sample of comments each cycle; keep the teacher's own comments on content accuracy.	Rater training [+M] (moderator across 58 studies, roles pooled); rubric guidance [+M] (MOOC writers; graduate students)

Summative Assessment

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the format (first exam of this kind, first-year students, a new kind of task)	Add a full practice run in the end-point's format a week before, with worked answers; keep the first summative of the course lower in weight	Classroom quizzing delivered by clickers, computer software, or paper improves student performance on classroom exams in middle school and college courses [+M] for quizzing during the course; the practice run itself is untested

Technology should augment, not supplant, learning processes in student-centered environments

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this task	Allow tool explanations after an attempt, but keep the unaided check; watch for dependence	Descriptive user-study patterns that the authors read as GPT output possibly scaffolding IVDA students and reducing CV students' performance, an interpretation by prior knowledge that the study did not measure [~M] (computer science students, descriptive, multiple-choice)

Text Chats

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the language or the topic, or the task is open	Give a closed task with one outcome and 5–10 minutes of prepared content first; supply sentence starters for the first session	Closed meaning-focused tasks foster more negotiation of meaning and negative feedback than open tasks in CMC [+M]; subtitled videos before chat tasks [+M]; Unfocused tasks elicit significantly more confirmation checks and clarification requests than focused tasks [~M] (36 learners, mode not stated on the claim page: a qualification on "closed is always better")

Think-Pair-Share

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners have not yet been taught the needed concept (novice)	Give a short explanation or example before the prompt; the think phase needs something to think with	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [~M]

Transfer of Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on this task, or the task is high in element interactivity	Secure the taught case first with worked examples and guided practice; start with two cases, not four; practise parts briefly before integrating; delay mixing until each type has been introduced	Part-task practice reduces cognitive load for absolute novices during initial skill acquisition. [~M] (load, not transfer); interleaving [~M] (claim page notes novel material can reverse the benefit)

Understanding must be cultivated through exploration, not described or told

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on a procedure or technique they have never seen (a drawing convention, software steps)	Demonstrate and explain the procedure first; keep clue-led exploration for the principle the procedure serves	Explicit instruction produces greater learning than unassisted discovery learning under most conditions [-M] (meta-analysis across domains; not studio-specific)

Use computer tools that let students explore hypotheses and solutions faster so they can test many ideas without frustration

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the target relation (e.g. a first encounter with how a variable affects a system)	Set the question and fix which variables may change; require a written prediction before each test; keep a prompt sheet throughout; end with the canonical explanation	Unassisted discovery produces less learning than explicit instruction, while discovery enhanced with guidance outperforms other instruction [~S]

Video Replay Analysis

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice (teacher candidates, first-year trainees)	Run sessions 1–2 on others' clips with a coach-set focus of one or two items; time-stamp and describe before interpreting; the coach picks the moments in early own-clip sessions	Expert teachers interpret complex classroom phenomena more accurately and fluidly than novices and postulants [~M]; Authentic video outperformed virtual simulation on the higher-order analysis and support dimensions of observation assignments [+M] (preschool teacher candidates watching others' video, not their own)

Workshop Model

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the practice (cannot start or sustain a piece alone)	Lengthen the mini-lesson to 15–20 minutes with a guided "we do" before release; pull the novices into a small group for the first 10 minutes of the work block; use worked or partly completed models; shorten the independent block at first and lengthen it as they keep going unprompted.	Minimal guidance is less effective for novices [~S]: discovery and explicit-instruction comparisons, not workshops; 13 distinct studies in its table

Blended Learning

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content	Keep each online exposition segment short, with an embedded check and worked material, and spend the in-person time on guided practice with feedback before independent work.	untested proposal

Error Analysis

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
novice: no correct model of this task yet	Do not open with errors. Teach or show one or two correct worked examples first; add one erroneous example per misconception only once the learner can follow a correct one.	untested; from the earlier page

Evidence-Based Teaching and Scientific Reasoning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Decision-makers are novice at reading research (most classroom teachers, school leaders)	Start from clearinghouse summaries and a one-page question card (comparison, how groups formed, outcome, horizon); do not ask them to read primary statistics first	untested proposal

Flipped Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the topic and the material has many interacting parts	Keep the first explanation live, or use a worked-example video with a pause-and-try item after each step; flip only the later, more practised topics; give the opening check before any independent application	untested; Active learning improves exam performance [~S] is a course-level average that does not separate novices; the guidance limit for novices is on Active Learning. In one calculus study, prior achievement and the major taken in senior high school both predicted conceptual understanding in both flipped variants, and the peer-teaching advantage did not depend on either (Prior achievement level affects calculus conceptual understanding, and PTFC outperforms CFC across achievement levels… [~M]; Senior high school majors' background affects calculus conceptual understanding and self-efficacy… [~M]): weaker starters ended lower under either flip, which no unflipped arm tests

Fostering Creative Thinking

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content	Teach or revisit the content first; keep generation to 5 minutes on concrete objects they know; give two or three example answers of different kinds after the first round, not before	untested proposal; from the earlier page (creative answers depend partly on knowing the objects)

Game-Based Mastery Learning

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the domain	Word banks and recognition items first, typed or spoken answers only after the first level is passed; feedback with the correct answer on every item; a criterion check on day 3 or later	Untested here; the feedback and gate steps rest on the claims in steps 3–4, none tested with novices separately

Interleaving

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on every kind and the kinds have not yet been met	Meet each kind on its own first (two or three items), then mix; do not open with mixed practice of unfamiliar kinds	untested proposal; the blocked-then-mixed order is a design choice the meta-analysis did not test; guidance that helps novices may be redundant later (expertise reversal [~M])

Online Course Design (Community of Inquiry)

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the content	Put more of each week into the content strand, with worked examples and self-checks, and keep discussion tasks to applying what was just shown; give feedback on every early piece.	Untested here. The SRL synthesis [+M] does not break results down by prior knowledge

Peer Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and are meeting the material for the first time	Do not ask them to explain unstudied content; study a worked example together first, then explain it to each other step by step; have the teacher check one explanation per pair before swapping	untested proposal; the self-explanation claim [~S] notes in its discussion that learners without background may reinforce misconceptions

Peer Teaching

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice and meeting the material for the first time	Do not ask them to teach unstudied material. Teach it to the class first (or study a worked example together), then run the routine on it with an answer key on each card, so the partner can check.	Untested proposal; the Peer Learning principle carries the same caution

Provide positive comments alongside constructive criticism when responding to student writing

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Writers are novice in the genre or have low confidence as writers	Open with two specific strength comments before any critique; keep critique to one or two priorities with a concrete next step; name the improvement on the next draft first	untested proposal; from the earlier page (motivation and confidence of student writers). The information requirement is Feedback Most Effective At Task And Process Levels [+S], not tested on writing confidence

Social Interdependence

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the content, or members differ widely in what they know	Teach and model the content first; use interdependence for practice and explanation, not first acquisition; set improvement-based team scores so low starters can contribute	untested proposal; improvement-based scoring from the Discussion of group rewards combined with individual accountability [~M], not from its entries

Structured Academic Controversy

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Expertise novice on the topic (cannot name evidence on either side)	Lengthen preparation (a prior reading, or 20+ minutes with a structured source pack per side) and give an argument frame. Shorten open discussion. Defer SAC until a short explicit input on the evidence has been given.	untested proposal; argumentation improves reasoning [~M] names prior knowledge as an open question on its claim page, not a tested moderator

Teach the conceptual underpinnings of L2 forms rather than only their structural aspects or formulaic units

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the L2, or do not yet produce the form	Teach two or three high-frequency uses as phrases first, in meaningful use; bring in the core-sense diagram only once learners have several uses to connect, and keep it short	untested; the one study (core senses with diagrams [~M]) taught advanced learners only

Traditional Lecture-Based Instruction

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice, in the first weeks of an introductory course	Keep lecture at the higher early share, with worked demonstrations, and checks after every segment; do not leave learners to discover the content in the activity time.	Untested here; the Active Learning principle's novice row carries the guidance evidence

Treat talking and writing as means to learning through dialogue-based, student-centered instruction

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice in the target language, or have low literacy	Let them plan in their first language or by drawing; give sentence frames; talk before writing; accept short answers at first and build length across sessions; gloss content words	untested proposal; the claims recorded here are not on beginners or low-literacy learners

User-Centered Design for Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Users are novice with this kind of interface, or new to digital learning	Add the first-session walk-through (step 9) and test with first-time users; use plain labels from their own words, not system terms	untested; from the earlier page (largest payoff for novices to the interface's conventions)