Stories may be easier to remember and comprehend than essays because stories resemble our everyday experiences (Bruner, <a href="#CR10" rid="CR10" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1986</a>; Graesser et al., <a href="#CR39" rid="CR39" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1991</a>). People experience life in the real world as temporally ordered causal events, organized around personal goals, with the encountering and overcoming of obstacles to these goals resulting in emotional experiences; this parallels the structure of stories (Graesser, McNamara, &amp; Louwerse, <a href="#CR37" rid="CR37" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2003</a>; Graesser, Singer, &amp; Trabasso, <a href="#CR38" rid="CR38" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1994</a>).

Familiarity with the structure and content of a text is referred to as relevant “prior knowledge” (Dochy, Segers, &amp; Buehl, <a href="#CR28" rid="CR28" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1999</a>), and stories might be more memorable and comprehensible thanks to readers having greater prior knowledge.

Readers are less likely to benefit from prior knowledge while reading an essay, relative to stories, and are therefore less likely to benefit from easy inferences. This combination could easily put expository texts at a disadvantage when it comes to memory and comprehension (Coté, Goldman, &amp; Saul, <a href="#CR18" rid="CR18" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1998</a>; McNamara, <a href="#CR68" rid="CR68" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2004</a>).

A final reason to believe that narratives may be more memorable than expository texts hinges on the ability of emotions to facilitate memory (Hamann, <a href="#CR42" rid="CR42" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2001</a>). Affectively charged recollections have been dubbed “flash-bulb” memories, to communicate the idea that emotional events are deeply imprinted on the mind, like a flash aiding photography (Winograd &amp; Neisser, <a href="#CR107" rid="CR107" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1992</a>). This emotional facilitation of memory appears to result from a prioritizing of emotional material when it comes to attention and perception (Brosch, Pourtois, &amp; Sander, <a href="#CR9" rid="CR9" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2010</a>), with personal relevance playing a key role (Levine &amp; Edelstein, <a href="#CR58" rid="CR58" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2009</a>). To the extent that stories are better able to evoke strong emotions than expository texts (cf. Mar, Oatley, Djikic, &amp; Mullin, <a href="#CR62" rid="CR62" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2011</a>), we would expect stories to be better recalled than exposition.

Our primary research question was whether memory and comprehension differ for narrative versus expository texts. Our three-level random-effects meta-analysis of 150 effect-sizes found that, on average, memory and comprehension of narrative texts was superior to that for expository texts.

Our meta-analysis of 150 effect-sizes (from over 75 unique samples and more than 33,000 participants) found that people had an easier time comprehending and recalling narrative texts compared to expository ones. The average magnitude of this effect was more than a half a standard deviation, with a 95% CI ranging from just more than one-quarter to slightly more than three-quarters of a standard deviation. Moreover, this result appears to be robust, and not driven by any one particular effect-size or study. There was a great deal of variability in these effects, however, almost all of which represents true heterogeneity and not random sampling error. This variability originated primarily from differences between studies.

In closing, the totality of the evidence available finds that people have an easier time comprehending and recalling information presented in a story compared to that presented in an essay. This has potential implications for a number of disciplines, not least of which is the realm of education.

To that end, the advantage afforded to narratives over exposition in this domain should be considered whenever possible. We must emphasize, however, that these results should not be interpreted as a suggestion to force all information into a narrative form for pedagogical purposes, especially when such information is not typically presented in this way.

It is quite possible that mixed genres like narrative journalism, for example, could hold the key for leveraging the advantages of narrative–its ability to capture interest and communicate experience through imagination – to meet the goals of exposition to inform and educate (van Krieken &amp; Sanders, <a href="#CR102" rid="CR102" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">in press</a>).

Based on over 75 unique samples and data from more than 33,000 participants, we found that stories were more easily understood and better recalled than essays. Moreover, this result was robust, not influenced by the inclusion of a single effect-size or single study, and not moderated by various study characteristics. This finding has implications for any domain in which acquiring and retaining information is important.

The 85% rule suggests growth will be maximized when we practice tasks we can succeed at roughly four-fifths of the time.

If you succeed in every attempt, you probably don’t have the difficulty high enough to improve. If you fail most of the time, you will likely make more progress if you start picking smaller, more manageable challenges.

<strong><a href="https://www.christytuckerlearning.com/how-research-informs-my-work/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">How Research Informs My Work</a><br></strong><em>Research plays an important role in the work of learning professionals. While our work often serves organizational performance goals, educational research forms the foundations upon which we can build programs that can effectively target those goals. It’s not about one being more important than the other; as Christy Tucker explains in this inciteful post, research informs the work we do in L&amp;D.</em>

The student teachers were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions:control group (online scenario-based learning activity), intervention group 1 (online scenario-based learning activity and feedback), and intervention group 2 (online scenario-based learning, feedback, and reflection). The findings indicated that, compared to the control group, both intervention conditions had a significant positive effect on cognitive classroom readiness. A significant positive effect on self-efficacy was found for intervention group 2. Overall, our research demonstrates the potential of an easy-to-implement online intervention in enhancing self-efficacy and classroom readiness and points towards the importance of combining feedback and reflection within online scenario-based learning activities.

While the e-learning SBL was not better than the classroom experience, it was comparable. The lack of significance tells us that the online learning students view their engagement, enjoyment, and learning similarly.

<strong>Key Takeaway:</strong> Scenario-based learning is beneficial, both online and in-person. Thus, implementing SBL into e-learning settings, particularly when preparing learners for real-world settings, is an effective way to engage learners.

As instructors and designers, we need to keep in mind that there can be other reasons to use objectives <em>and </em>we need to clearly distinguish between objectives that we use as instructional/learning designers versus the ones we might use for learners.

So how often should information be boostered? We recommend that you send boosters out in three phases. You can keep this in mind by remembering 2+2+2. Send out boosters after two days, two weeks, and two months.

This first set of boosters should be “recognition boosters.” The strategy here is just to get people to try to recognize the right answer from a list of options.

The second phase of boosters should be sent about two weeks after the training and at this time you should send out “generative boosters.” In a generative booster, the learner does not just recognize the right answer from a list. Instead, they have to think about the topic and then create an answer out of their head.

The third phase of boosters should be sent about two months after the training, and at this time you should send out “integrative boosters.” An integrative booster again prompts the learner to retrieve the information, but this question specifically asks them to provide concrete examples of how they have made use of this information in their job.

<p>Dweck emphasizes that mindset interventions should not be one-time events.</p> <p>Anything that happens just once — “a chart at the front of the room, a lecture where you define the two mindsets” — isn’t likely to work.</p> <p>Instead, we should focus on “the policies and practices in the classroom. <em>It is not about teaching the concept alone</em>, it is much more about implementing practices that focus on growth and learning.” [emphasis added] </p>

That is: when students <span style="color: #000000;"><b>didn’t&nbsp;</b></span>review a particular set of facts, they could still reason with them — as long as they <strong>had practiced</strong> doing that kind of reasoning.

Although fact quizzes were beneficial for fact learning, they did not facilitate higher order learning, contrary to popular intuition based on Bloom’s taxonomy.

Contrary to popular intuition, building a foundation of factual knowledge via retrieval practice did not enhance students’ higher order learning. Instead, students’ final fact test and higher order test performance was greatest following retrieval practice that matched in cognitive complexity based on Bloom’s taxonomy: fact quizzes enhanced final fact test performance and higher order quizzes enhanced final higher order test performance. Retrieval practice increased learning by 20–30% under laboratory conditions with college students and also in an authentic K-12 classroom.

Why didn’t fact quizzes improve higher order learning in the present study, as many cognitive scientists and educators contend? First, students may have been unaware that information on fact quizzes was related to final higher order tests, thus they did not transfer their knowledge without explicit instructions to do so.

Mixed quizzes, comprising both fact and higher order questions, increased higher order test performance more than fact quizzes (in Experiment 2) and slightly more than higher order quizzes (in Experiment

If we want to reach the top of Bloom’s taxonomy, building a foundation of knowledge via fact-based retrieval practice may be less potent than engaging in higher order retrieval practice at the outset, a key finding for future research and classroom application.

1. Keep game complexity simple, particularly when you are using a game to support relatively short lessons.

<strong>2. Reward players for performance, not completion</strong>.

<strong>3. Be cautious with leaderboards</strong>.

4. As much as possible, align the game element choices you use to the learner’s actual job context.

<strong>5. Make the in-game goal align with the learning goal in a reasonable way that “makes sense” for the learners who will play your game or complete your gamified lesson</strong>.

6. Stop thinking you have to make the game super “fun.”

What is Scenario-Based e-Learning?

<em>A. The learner assumes the role of an actor responding to a job realistic situation.</em>&nbsp;

<em>B. The learning environment is preplanned</em>.&nbsp;

<em>C. Learning is inductive rather than instructive.</em>&nbsp;

<em>D. The instruction is guided</em>.&nbsp;

<em>E. Scenario lessons incorporate instructional resources.</em>&nbsp;

<em>F. The goal is to accelerate workplace expertise.</em>&nbsp;

As you consider incorporating scenario-based e-Learning into your instructional mix, consider whether the acceleration of expertise will give you a return on investment.&nbsp; For example, interviews with subject matter experts indicated that automotive technicians must complete about 100 work orders to reach a reasonable competency level in any given troubleshooting domain.&nbsp; Comparing delivery alternatives, OJT would require around 200+ hours, instructor-led training would require around 100 hours, and scenario-based e-Learning simulations require approximately 33–66 hours.

Finally, many learners find scenario-based e-Learning more motivating than traditional instructional formats.&nbsp; Solving a work-related problem makes the instruction immediately relevant.

Stories are effective tools for learning due to their ability to facilitate the following cognitive processes: i) concretizing, ii) assimilation, and iii) structurizing (Evans and Evans 1989).