Subgoal labeling is giving a name to a group of steps, in a step-by-step description of a

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management * Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...

, to explain how the group of steps achieve a related subgoal. This concept is used in the fields of

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

and

educational psychology Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive psychology, cognitive and behavioral psychology, behavioral perspectives, allows researc ...

. Lower-level steps of a worked example are grouped into a meaningful unit and labeled. This labeling helps learners identify the

structural A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

information from incidental information.

Learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...

subgoals can reduce

cognitive load In cognitive psychology, cognitive load is the effort being used in the working memory. According to work conducted in the field of instructional design and pedagogy, broadly, there are three types of cognitive load: * ''Intrinsic'' cognitive load ...

when

problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

because the learner has fewer possible problem-solving steps to focus. Subgoal-labeled worked examples might provide learners with mental model frameworks. In a recent study, Learners who were given labels for subgoals used those labels when explaining how they solved a problem, suggesting that's how they mentally organized the information.

Introduction

Generally problem solving adopts a very procedural approach. Problem solving in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ( STEM) has been highly procedural. The best approach so far is to teach these procedures through instructional text accompanied by specific worked examples. The role of instructional text is to define and describe the problem solving procedures whereas how to apply these procedures is shown through worked examples. Students can learn from step-by-step approach of worked examples which later can be helpful to them in solving similar problems on their own. Novices, however, often find it difficult to distinguish domain specific information and the information specific to solving that problem, which increases their cognitive load. This cognitive load can be reduced by use of subgoal labeling which is achieved by grouping functionally-similar steps under a label that describes that function. This approach can be helpful to students to form a mental model of the domain related problem which later can guide them to solve different problems in that domain. Understanding the structure of worked example can help students identify the similarities between different problems thus encouraging self-explanation and learning.

Application

Subgoal labels have been used in worked examples to teach learners to solve problems in STEM domains Pairing subgoal labeled instructional text with subgoal labeled worked examples can further improve learners performance in problem solving in a computer-based learning environment (e.g. online learning) without personal interaction with an instructor. Subgoal labels can be used in different important areas such as teaching and learning novel problem solving, in training teachers to teach technical subjects (e.g. teaching computer programming), multi agent programming, professional development, online learning and other types of lifelong learning (e.g. Subgoal labeled instruction material helped novices to program in App Inventor for Android).

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite book , chapter-url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2361291&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=625882973&CFTOKEN=47576430 , author=Margulieux, L. E., Guzdial, M., & Catrambone, R. , title=Proceedings of the ninth annual international conference on International computing education research , chapter=Subgoal-labeled instructional material improves performance and transfer in learning to develop mobile applications , date=September 2012 , pages=71–78 , doi=10.1145/2361276.2361291, isbn=9781450316040 , s2cid=17716228 , url=https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/ltd_facpub/33 Margulieux, L. E. (2014). Subgoal Labeled Instructional Text and Worked Examples in STEM Education Margulieux, L. E., Catrambone, R., & Guzdial, M. Subgoal Labeled Worked Examples Improve K-12 Teacher Performance in Computer Programming Training (2013) Catrambone, R. (1995). Aiding subgoal learning: Effects on transfer. '' Journal of Educational Psychology'', 87(1), 5. Catrambone, R. (1998). The subgoal learning model: Creating better examples so that students can solve novel problems. '' Journal of Experimental Psychology: General'', 127(4), 355. Chiu, C. C., & Soo, V. W. (2007). Subgoal Identification for Reinforcement Learning and Planning in Multiagent Problem Solving (pp. 37-48). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Educational research Human–computer interaction Cognitive science Educational psychology

Introduction

Application

See also

References