HOW LEARNING CONTEXTS FACILITATE STRATEGY TRANSFER

The present study assessed the role of context in the acquisition and transfer of a mathematical strategy. One hundred and six children were assigned to four conditions: direct strategy instruction, guided disc overy, direct teaching plus discovery, or a control condition. The int ervention consisted of fourteen sessions during which the number-famil y strategy, useful for addition and subtraction, was taught. Third gra de students in the guided discovery condition performed better than th ose in the direct instruction condition on far transfer problems that measured deep conceptual understanding. Students who had total or part ial exposure to guided discovery held stronger beliefs and adopted mor e positive goals about the importance of mathematical understanding an d peer collaboration, attributed less importance to task extrinsic rea sons for success, and reported greater use of deep processing strategi es than students exposed to direct, explicit instructions. Finally, st udents in the discovery conditions were able to communicate more effec tively during problem solving than students in the direct instructions condition.