DIFFERENTIAL-EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT ON LEARNING IN SIMULATION ENVIRONMENTS

This article investigates a complex Aptitude Treatment Interaction (AT I), of intelligence and metacognitive skill as aptitudes with structur edness of learning environment as treatment. A more structured learnin g environment is usually regarded as beneficial to learning in low int elligence students, whereas it may not affect or may even interfere wi th learning in high intelligence students. The overall analyses of fou r studies are presented, including a total of 99 subjects. High and lo w intelligence novices passed through either structured or unstructure d simulation environments in the domains of heat theory, electricity, or statistics. Thinking-aloud protocols were analyzed in order to asse ss the metacognitive skillfulness of subjects. Several learning tests were administered, assessing both declarative and procedural domain kn owledge. The results show that structuredness of learning environment did not affect learning in high intelligence subjects, irrespective of their level of metacognitive skillfulness. However, the structured le arning environment yielded enhanced learning performances in low intel ligence subjects with a low level of metacognitive skillfulness, while it interfered with learning in low intelligence subjects with a relat ively high level of metacognitive skillfulness.