Overview
- Elaboration Theory is an instructional design theory that is more than just zooming out and then zooming in. It requires teachers to follow a structure that assists schema development.
- The epitome is about presenting the “to-be-learned” information in an accessible way so that learners can build connections between their pre-existing knowledge and the new concept. Giving them the ‘big picture’ at the start can allow them to understand an abstract concept.
- Elaboration Theory reminds us of the complex nature of learning. To learn a new concept/idea/topic is a generative process that requires many stages of elaboration and retrieval practice.
The Dunning-Kruger effect has got me again! Previously, I thought that Elaboration Theory was fairly simple and straight-forward – you start off with an overview of the ‘big picture’ and then hone in on smaller concepts and build on from there. To an extent, this is true, but as I dove into Paul A. Kirschner and Carl Hendrick‘s brilliant book, “How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice, I found that there were intricate details that were essential to understand.
What is Elaboration Theory?
“A person starts with a wide-angle view, which allows one to see the major parts of the picture and the major relationships among those parts but without any detail.
The person then zooms in on a part of the picture. Assume that, instead of being continuous, the zoom operates in steps of discrete levels. Zooming in one level on a given part of the picture allows the person to see the major subparts. After having studied those subparts and their interrelationships, the person could then zoom back out to the wide-angle view to review the context of this part within the whole picture.”
Reigeluth, 1979
Zooming Out on Elaboration Theory
I will attempt to follow the Elaboration Theory model in explaining what it is! I will also add in my key takeaways and how it fits in with my understanding of the science of learning. The first step is to epitomise (simplest representative) the idea.
The Epitome
The epitome level has been described as the most important and the connection that I made was the need to turn an abstract concept into something more concrete. As teachers, we often suffer from the Curse of Knowledge and go straight into teaching something that is still foreign to the learner. One of the reasons why using concrete manipulatives in mathematics has been proven to be so effective is because if we go straight into using symbols, students don’t understand what the symbols actually represent (Carbonneau et al, 2013).
It also gave me a deeper understanding on why the Game Sense approach works in Physical Education. This approach starts off with a modified game that is interchanged with times of reflection and inquiry.
Synthesiser or Expanded Epitome
Kirschner and Hendrick, 2020 described a synthesiser as something to integrate what has already been learned with the bigger picture for example, analogies or diagrams.
Using analogies also ties in with Daniel Willingham’s advice from “Why don’t students like school?” on using the power of stories to help students understand and remember the concept that you are trying to teach. If the concept that we are trying to teach does not have anything physical for us to use or show, analogies and stories help us link the abstract concept to things that the students already know.
Using knowledge organisers and mapping are methods supported by research (Fiorella and Mayer, 2016; Wellerman and Harg, 1991) as being effective tools to use as advanced organisers.
It is all about building connections for the students which will in turn increase their motivation due to them understanding what they are trying to learn and how it fits into the ‘big picture’. They will also be able to pay attention to new information better due to building up their schemas. We need knowledge to gain knowledge.
Summariser
Reigeluth and Stein have set three specific parts of a summariser:
- Rule
- Example
- Practice
The way I interpreted the summariser is that it:
- follows the explicit teaching strategy of modelled, guided and practice.
- is a way of performing formative assessment by checking for understanding
- can also be used as a method for retrieval practice.
Using the Elaboration Theory Model
The following two diagrams are taken out of, “In search of a better way to organize instruction: The elaboration theory,” (Reigeluth, 1979) and give an overview of some key considerations that need to be taken before following the model. Firstly, what sort of continuum will you follow?
- The general-to-detailed continuum refers primarily to a continuum formed by subdividing things (concepts or procedures)or by lumping things (concepts or procedures)together.
- The simple-to-complex continuum refers primarily to a continuum formed by adding or removing things (principles or procedures).
- The abstract-to-concrete continuum refers to tangibility, and there are two major types of tangibility.
This diagram shows the procedure to follow when designing the structure of your learning sequence.
Elaboration Theory in Action
Here are some examples of how teachers are using their knowledge of Elaboration Theory in the classroom.
Tom Sherrington has also written about it in his blog post Curriculum Notes #2: Big picture first: then zoom in.
Final takeaways
Zooming in on Elaboration Theory has given me more food for thought when designing units of work. It has given me a deeper understanding on why we need to “Zoom out” at the start, in order to build the connections with students pre-existing knowledge. Previously, I was unsure of whether or not to go into showing the ‘final product’ at the beginning of a program as I thought it could place extraneous load on the working memory of my students. However, this has cleared up that in-fact we are placing an extraneous load on them, if we don’t ‘Zoom out’ because often the new concept is still an abstract one for the students.
Overview
- Elaboration Theory is an instructional design theory that is more than just zooming out and then zooming in. It requires teachers to follow a structure that assists schema development.
- The epitome is about presenting the “to-be-learned” information in an accessible way so that learners can build connections between their pre-existing knowledge and the new concept. Giving them the ‘big picture’ at the start can allow them to understand an abstract concept.
- Elaboration Theory reminds us of the complex nature of learning. To learn a new concept/idea/topic is a generative process that requires many stages of elaboration and retrieval practice.
References
Carbonneau, K. J., Marley, S. C., & Selig, J. P. (2013). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of teaching mathematics with concrete manipulatives. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 380–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031084
Fiorella, L., Mayer, R.E. Eight Ways to Promote Generative Learning. Educ Psychol Rev 28, 717–741 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9348-9
Kirschner, P.A. and Hendrick, C. 2020, “How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice,” Published March 3, 2020 by Routledge
Lovell, O. 2020. “Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory in Action.” John Catt Educational
Reigeluth, Charles. (1979). In search of a better way to organize instruction: The elaboration theory (05). Journal of Instructional Development. 2. 8-15. 10.1007/BF02984374.
Reigeluth, C.M. Elaborating the elaboration theory. ETR&D 40, 80–86 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02296844
Willerman, M. and Mac Harg, R.A. (1991), The concept map as an advance organizer. J. Res. Sci. Teach., 28: 705-711. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660280807
Willingham, D.T. 2021. “Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. Second Edition.” John Wiley & Sons Inc
Zuccolo, A., Spittle, M., & Pill, S. (2014). Game Sense Research in Coaching: Findings and Reflections. University of Sydney Papers in Human Movement, Health and Coach Education (HMHCE), 3(Special Game Sense Edition), 15-30.