Three forms of cognitive elaboration as alternative instructional strategies¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 6 claims (3 for, 3 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Cognitive elaboration is defined as the generation and integration of new information into one's pre-existing knowledge structure, operationalized as an instructional strategy helping students relate new course material to other course content and prior knowledge. The article distinguishes "the self-generated elaboration, the instructor-assisted elaboration, and the self-generated elaboration followed by the instructor -assisted elaboration." The self-generated form gives students a central role, while the instructor-assisted and combined forms let students take a peripheral route by following given instructions to generate the integration.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Students must engage with elaboration materials designed around the target problems (here, operating-cycle calculations) within the instructional episode.

Constraints¶

• The instructor-assisted and combined forms are described as allowing a peripheral route "without active thinking," which the authors treat as the mechanism distinguishing them from self-generated elaboration.

Target Learners¶

• first accounting course (introductory) students

Target Learning Objectives¶

• acquisition of procedural knowledge
• development of intellectual skills
• attitudes toward the learning method

Claims¶

• Self Generated Elaboration Improves Procedural Knowledge Accounting [+M]
• Elaboration Strategy No Attitude Effect [+M]
• Cognitive elaboration strategy significantly affects overall posttest performance, with self-generated elaboration highest [+M]
• GPA predicts procedural knowledge and intellectual skills but not attitudes toward learning [~W]
• GPA, pretest score, and self-generated elaboration jointly predict intellectual skills but not procedural knowledge or attitudes [~W]
• In one accounting classroom experiment, self-generated elaboration scored marginally above instructor-assisted elaboration on intellectual skills (p = .06, omnibus test not significant) and no higher than a combined strategy [~W]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

• Choose instructional strategies that promote self-generated elaboration to foster knowledge transfer and accounting expertise
• Connect Prior Knowledge to New Learning
• Making Connections
• Elaborative Interrogation
• Elaboration

Key Sources¶

• Xiong, Y., Zhou, H., & Ogilby, S. M. (2014). Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Cognitive Elaboration on Accounting Learning Outcomes. Journal of Education and Learning, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v3n4p1