Effects of cognitive strategies and cooperative scripts on technical learning

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to improve strategies for learning structural and functional information about technical equipment. In the first study, 83 participants formed four experimental groups: a GRASP strategy group, an OINC strategy group, a Cooperative No-strategy group, and an Individual No-strategy group. The task was to study and learn the structure and function of a respirator. The main difference between GRASP and OINC strategies was employment of dynamic rather than static imagery techniques to facilitate learning both verbal function information and visual structure information. Statistical analyses showed that recall performance was affected by the type of strategy employed, with the static imagery technique leading to greater structure recall and dynamic imagery to more function recall. In the second study, 72 participants formed three experimental groups: a Cooperative Teaching group, a Cooperative Learning group, and a Cooperative Microteaching group. The task was to study the structure and function of both a respirator and an aircraft's instruments and controls. In all groups the learners studied with a partner. In the Cooperative Teaching group each partner read only one passage and then taught the information to his or her partner. In the Cooperative Learning group both partners read both passages, stopping to summarize the information aloud to one another at one-page intervals. In the cooperative microteaching group each partner read alternate pages of each passage, stopping to teach their information to one another. Statistical analyses showed that members of the cooperative teaching group significantly outperformed the others when recalling all information. Explanations offered for this effect included different demand characteristics, different amounts of effort, different metacognitive activity, and different social interdependency among learners in each group.