Transitioning From Studying Examples to Solving Problems: Effects of Self-Explanation Prompts and Fading Worked-Out Steps

Although research has demonstrated that successively fading or successively removing more and more worked-out solution steps as learners transition from relying on examples to independent problem solving reliably fosters performance on near-transfer tasks - relative to example-problem pairs - this effect is not reliable on far-transfer tasks. To address this, the authors combined fading with the introduction of prompts designed to encourage learners to identify the underlying principle illustrated in each worked-out solution step. Across 2 experiments, this combination produced medium to large effects on near and far transfer without requiring additional time on task. Thus, the instructional procedure is highly recommendable because it (a) is relatively straightforward to implement, (b) does not prolong learning time, and (c) fosters both near- and far-transfer performance.