ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes evidence relevant to the debate about the amount and type of instructional guidance that is most effective and efficient for learning, performance, and transfer. Arguments about the disputed benefits of “constructivist” versus “instructivist” or “objectivist” approaches (e.g., Duffy & Jonassen, 1992; Jonassen, 1991; Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006) or “ problem-based learning” versus “transmission models” (e.g., Schwartz & Bransford, 1998; Sweller, 2006) focus primarily on different views about how much and what type of guidance needs to be offered when and to whom with what impact. All of the participants in the debate seem to agree about many of the forms of instructional support that must be offered to most students in most educational environments. The disagreement that fuels the debate stems from different views about the necessity and consequences of forcing specific procedural guidance in situations where learners may be able to discover solutions to unfamiliar problems and tasks. It will be argued that all evidence supporting the discovery elements of constructivist theory is based on studies that failed to vary the type and amount of guidance provided. It is also argued that the debate can be resolved by reference to research that systematically varies the type, amount, and beneficiaries of instructional guidance needed to solve problems or perform tasks. Any attempt to explicate a construct such as “guidance” or “discovery” is hampered by the fact that advocates of different instructional theories and models tend to define and operationalize instructional support in very different ways. These different theories often spring from different models of learning and sometimes different belief systems, inquiry methods, and philosophies (Cronbach & Snow, 1977; Jonassen, 1991; Merrill, 2002; Romiszowski, 2006). To some extent, these differences reflect the increased specialization and fragmentation in educational research and theory over the past half-century (Winthrop, 1963; Ravitch & Viteretti, 2001) and a growing fragmentation among various sub-specializations in educational research. One result of this phenomenon is that researchers who favor a specific theory or point of view tend to isolate them-
selves and limit their research, reading, and collaboration to the journals and professional associations or divisions of associations that emphasize their perspective. Attempts to encourage dialogues between the diverse groups who are concerned with instruction and learning will help bridge the gaps and resolve important disagreements. This chapter begins with the assumption that those participating in this discussion want to improve instruction in the educational system we have inherited rather than to change our approach to guidance in order to impose ideological changes on our educational system. With this exception in mind, the discussion turns next to a description of the types of instructional support that many of the parties to the debate seem to accept as valid and those that have caused disagreement.
