STRATEGIES FOR THE WORK WITH DIAGNOSTIC P ROBLEMS WITHIN COMPLEX LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Empirical studies showed that learners often have difficulties in copi ng with the complex information of realistic learning problems. They a re likely to apply ineffective strategies in order to deal with these problems. Therefore, it was examined in an empirical study in the medi cal domain to what extent the application of strategies to a diagnosti c problem can be fostered by different forms of instructional support, namely strategic instructions and worked-out examples. Moreover, the correlation between application of strategies and quality of diagnosis was analyzed. The study provides evidence that advancement of applica tion of strategies can be attained by implementing both strategic inst ructions and worked-out examples. A combination of both forms of instr uctional support was especially effective. There was a strong positive correlation between application of strategies and quality of diagnosi s. These findings are discussed with respect to designing problem-orie nted computer-supported learning environments.