Faculty of Education Education, School, and Behaviour

The design and mechanisms of preparation-for-learning from a cognitive load perspective

The aim of the project is to gain insights into how teaching methods need to be designed and why they are effective in promoting deep understanding and transfer of knowledge. A key tension arises from two competing theoretical perspectives, which the project systematically brings together. 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 worked-out 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 teaching 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 worked examples.

Duration
10/2026 - 09/2029

Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) :
305 000 Euro

Project management

Prof. Dr. Inga Frey
Prof. Dr. Inga Glogger-Frey
Holder of the Professorship for Educational Psychology (Department of Psychology)
+49 361 737-2311

The project findings contribute to the current debate on the role of student-led learning (problem-based approaches) as opposed to teacher-led instruction (CLT), and thus to the integration of two competing theoretical approaches. It also lays the foundations for a nuanced understanding of why preparatory methods are effective and how they can be designed to maximise learning outcomes, thereby providing impetus for the psychology of teaching and learning and for practice.

Partners:

Associate Professor Dr Ouhao Chen (United Kingdom)

Professor Katharina Loibl (Freiburg)

Professor Alexander Renkl (Freiburg)

Professor Lennart Schalk (Switzerland)

The international research team from Germany, Switzerland and the UK aims, amongst other things, to answer the following questions:

  • Do people learn better when they have to work out solutions for themselves – or when they follow ready-made solutions?
  • Should the tasks be linked to specific real-life situations, or should they be more abstract and simplified?
  • What role do the difficulty of the material and the precise wording of the task objective play?

What constitutes effective preparation for learning? In learning research, there have so far been two schools of thought: one advocates that learners should discover as much as possible for themselves, whilst the other emphasises the importance of clear guidance to avoid overloading the brain. The project aims to bring these two perspectives together and thus gain a better understanding of why certain preparation methods work – and how teaching materials can be optimised.

Further information on the project can be found on the research webpages of the Department of Psychology at the University of Erfurt.

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Education, School, and Behaviour