Use in vivo experimentation: rigorous experimental contrasts embedded in operating courses with real students, real subject matter, and real contexts¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

In vivo experimentation is PSLC's primary methodology: running experimental contrasts inside operating courses with students participating without extra incentives, combining classroom realism with 'experimental control that is as rigorous as possible within these real-world constraints'. The essential standards are real students, real subject matter, and rigorous control. Laboratory studies are used when in vivo restrictions (course-schedule timing, ethics of worse-than-practice conditions) make them preferable, maintaining ecological validity by using the same course materials and student population.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Access to operating courses and cooperating K12 or university settings
• Experimental control adapted to real-world course constraints

Constraints¶

• In vivo experiments face timing restrictions from course schedules and ethical restrictions against conditions hypothesized to be worse than current practice; lab studies lose the contextual and motivational backdrop of a course

Target Learners¶

• students in operating K12 and university courses

Target Learning Goals¶

• producing learning-science evidence that generalizes to real instructional contexts

Affordances¶

• Kli Framework Knowledge Learning Instruction

Related Strategies¶

• Use design research to study the interplay of guidance and discovery, trading methodological control for ecological validity
• In vivo experimentation: combine design research with controlled experimentation to balance control and ecological validity

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Kenneth R. Koedinger, Albert T. Corbett, Charles Perfetti. (2010). The Knowledge-Learning-Instruction (KLI) Framework: Toward Bridging the Science-Practice Chasm to Enhance Robust Student Learning. Carnegie Mellon University Technical Report. http://learnlab.org/research/wiki