Learning more efficiently through multi-media? Problems of the empirical assessment of the causes of successful learning

Multi-medially adapted learning systems are so highly attractive for educat ional experts and teachers because they seem to unite two as such contradic tory characteristics: they obviously meet modern didactic-methodological re quirements with regard to the complexity of the subject matter and to actio n-orientation and, on the other hand, they offer the possibility to control and to replicate the teaching/learning processes. The efficiency of comput er-supported learning, however, cannot be substantiated without difficulty. The authors sketch basic problems of the measurement of school achievement from the perspective of a theory of a measurement and of the psychology of learning. The form of the "achievement". in particular, as a construct of measurement and the resulting consequences for the development of an approp riate design of investigation are critically examined. At the same time, th e consequences of different conceptualizations of learning for the correspo nding experimental designs are discussed.