Lessons · Teaching · worked examples, and fading them
A novice needs to see it done
Before a learner can solve a problem they need several fully worked examples, because solving without a method spends all of working memory on searching and leaves none for learning the method.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Every lesson on this site hands you worked lines before it hands you a blank, and you have been reading them that way round since your first day here. You know what it does: the faded line at the end is easy because four complete lines sit above it, and it would be unanswerable without them. The same effect is available in your own room. Setting problems before the method exists feels like high expectations and is mostly a search that teaches nothing.
How to think about it
Start with a whole example, every line shown. Then a nearly whole one with the last step missing. Then two steps missing. Then a bare problem. Taking the support away from the end backwards is called fading, and the order is the technique.
Worked example
Example 1, every step shownNothing missing. The learner reads a method instead of hunting for one.
Example 2, last step missingThey supply one step, and everything before it is still there to lean on.
Example 3, last two steps missingThe support comes off from the end backwards, never from the front.
Example 4, problem onlyA problem at last, and now it is practice rather than a search.
Your turn
A method has four steps and example 3 has the last two removed. Write the line that gives how many steps example 3 still shows.
Example 3 shows of the 4 steps.
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Giving one worked example and moving on. One is a demonstration; the method gets built by several, and the second and third are where a learner stops watching and starts reading.