Abstract
On repeated occasions, observational learning has proved itself to be an effective instruction method. Experimental studies have shown to be effective for complex tasks such as reading and writing for both teachers and students as models. The problem when interpreting the results of such research is that, in observation tasks, several mental activities play a simultaneous role. In this study we therefore set out to identify the effective elements of observation tasks. We focused on two elements of the observation tasks, both aimed at stimulating monitoring activities: evaluation of the model’s performance and elaboration on this evaluation. We have also distinguished between elaboration on the observed products (the models’ written answers), and elaboration on the observed processes (the models’ verbalisations of their mental activities).
The data were subjected to a LISREL analysis. First of all, it was observed that subjects who performed “evaluation” and “productelaboration” better, and “process-elaboration” more often in one lesson, also performed these activities better or more often in the subsequent lesson. Next, we observed an effect of aptitude on the learning activities: pre skill scores influence “evaluation” and “product-elaboration”. The most important finding is that “evaluation” and “product-elaboration” contribute positively to argumentative writing skills. It is discussed that these findings confirm the importance of the monitoring, evaluative and reflective activities when learning complex tasks as writing.
Résumé
Comparativement à l’apprentissage par l’action, la méthode d’apprentissage par l’observation c’est plus efficace. On sait queles études expérimentales s’appliquent bien à destâches complexes comme la lecture et la production écrite, à la fois chez les enseignants et chez les élèves, pris comme modèles. Portant l’interprétation des résultats expérimentaux pose un problème puis que dans les tâches d’observation, plusieurs activités interviennent simultanément. Dans la présente étude, nous voulons identifier les éléments réellement critiques dans ces tâches d’observation. Nous nous sommes intéressés à deux d’entre eux: ‘l’évaluation’ et ‘l’élaboration’ (du ‘produit’ et du ‘processus’).
Pour le traitement des donées nous avons utilisée par la méthode LISREL. En premier lieu, les sujets qui, dans une première leçon, réalisent plus souvent correctement les activités d’apprentissage ‘évaluation’ et ‘élaboration du produit’, et réalisent plus souvent ‘élaboration du processus’, réussissent de la même façon dans le leçon suivante. En outre, nous avons constaté quel’existe un effet d’aptitude: les aptitudes établies préalablement influencent ‘l’évaluation’ et ‘l’élaboration du produit’. Le plus important résultat c’est des effets positifs de ‘l’évaluation’ et de ‘l’élaboration du produit’ sur les performances d’écrire argumentatives. Ce résultat confirme l’importance des activités monitor, évaluation et réflexion pendant l’apprentissage des taches complexes comme écrire.
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Braaksma, M.A.H., van den Bergh, H., Rijlaarsdam, G. et al. Effective learning activities in observation taks when learning to write and read argumentative texts. Eur J Psychol Educ 16, 33–48 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172993