Gestaltung und Mechanismen von Lernvorbereitungsmethoden aus einer Cognitive Load Perspektive

The aim of the project is to gain insights into how and why teaching methods need to be designed to promote deep understanding and transfer of knowledge. The theoretical perspective and practical approach of ‘Preparation for Future Learning’ (PFL) and ‘Productive Failure’ are supplemented here by the perspective of Cognitive Load Theory, with a view to potentially optimising teaching materials. The key questions are: Should preparatory tasks be geared towards the independent generation of solutions or rather towards understanding existing solutions? Should the problem material be contextualised or idealised? Furthermore, the complexity of the material and the specificity of the task objective (‘unspecific goal effect’) are examined. A systematic combination of these characteristics of the learning method can reveal interactions, such as the fact that – contrary to widely held belief – decontextualised materials are more effective for open-ended tasks, whilst contextualised materials are more effective (only) for example solutions.