Drawing on research around cognitive load, many teachers are now discussing the potential that worked examples have in developing student understanding.
Worked examples are often seen in maths classrooms, but actually, they can be used across the curriculum: from letter formation, scaffolds and frames for written texts, to example reading responses or even sequences of actions in gymnastics or design and technology.
On the surface, the worked examples principle seems straightforward: give pupils complete, modelled examples to help them understand what success looks like.
However, when I set out to develop the use of worked examples in my own practice, I discovered that - like so much in teaching and learning - it’s not quite as simple as it seems. Here’s how I incorporate worked examples into my own teaching.
Step 1: Timing is crucial
In Oliver Lovell’s excellent book Cognitive Load Theory in Action, he gives a very clear explanation about when worked examples should be used. They shouldn’t, for example, replace focused teaching used to introduce a particular concept or skill. Instead, they should be used between this introduction and pupils’ own independent practice, therefore forming a bridge to scaffold pupils’ transition between the two.
Step 2: Prompting understanding
When using worked examples, children need to be able to explain the reasons behind the different strategies used and choices made. This can be modelled by the teacher, using a “Think Aloud” approach, to show how we, as expert learners, approach particular tasks.
Alternatively, the explanations can be provided by the pupils themselves, giving them the opportunity to reflect on how the tasks have been undertaken, as well as to unpick the individual steps needed, why these have been used, and how these contribute towards successful learning.
Step 3: I do, you do
You can also alternate your worked examples with opportunities for children to practice the strategies you have modelled, using an “I do, you do” approach. This breaks the amount of information into shorter, more manageable chunks and gives pupils the opportunity to immediately apply their learning, reducing demands on their working memory.
Step 4: Fading
Once pupils have begun to develop a more secure understanding of the focus concept, faded examples can be used to provide further challenges. In faded examples, one or more steps are removed so that pupils need to add these in themselves. As their understanding progresses, more and more steps in the scaffolding provided by the worked example can be removed until pupils are working independently.
This idea of faded scaffolding can be seen in writing frames, where only a number of sentence stems or prompts are given, or in PE where a number of steps are omitted from an example of a focus sequence, prompting children to add these independently.
Step 5: Including mistakes
Exploring worked examples that include mistakes can develop pupils’ understanding of the concepts they study. Ensure that children understand that these examples contain errors and encourage them to unpick these, considering the underlying reasons. This helps pupils to avoid making similar mistakes in their own work and can be a great way to address any common misconceptions or errors pupils are likely to make.
Dr Kirstin Mulholland is a lecturer in education at Northumbria University
