ABSTRACT
Edit practice items and recognize practice items both provide learners with task support (refer back to Figure 4.1), because they give them-a part of-the solution. If part-task practice cannot immediately start with conventional items because they are too difficult for the learner, the best option is to start with items that provide high support and work as quickly as possible toward items without support. A well-known fading strategy is the recognizeedit-produce sequence (Gropper, 1983), which starts with items that require learners to recognize which steps or IF-THEN rules to apply, continues with items where learners have to edit incorrect steps or incorrect IF-THEN rules, and ends with conventional items for which learners have to apply the steps or rules on their own in order to produce the solution. Problem-solving guidance is irrelevant for practice items, because performing the procedure correctly always yields the right solution. This process is algorithmic rather than heuristic, so that there is no need for the learner to try out mental operations to find an acceptable solution. This makes providing modeling examples, process worksheets, or other heuristic aids superfluous. For part-task practice, the procedural information should specify a straightforward way to perform the procedure or apply the rules (see Section 13.3). Performance constraints, however, may be useful to support the learner performing complex procedures because such constraints impede or prevent ineffective behaviors. Performance constraints for part-task practice often take the form of training wheels interfaces (Carroll & Carrithers, 1984; Carroll et al., 1988), a term indicating resemblance to using training wheels on a child’s bicycle. In the beginning of the training, the wheels are on the same plane as the rear wheel, which makes the bicycle very stable and prevents it from falling over. As the child’s sense of balance increases, the wheels are moved up above the plane so that the bicycle still cannot fall over, but if the child is in balance, then the wheels will not touch the ground. The child is actually riding on two wheels, except during the negotiation of curves where the child has to slow down, tends to lose balance, and would be prone to falling.
