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Instructional support for novice law students: Reducing search processes and explaining concepts in cases
Author(s) -
Nievelstein Fleurie,
van Gog Tamara,
van Dijck Gijs,
Boshuizen Henny P. A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1707
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , psychology , process (computing) , test (biology) , code (set theory) , concept learning , cognitive psychology , cognitive load , mathematics education , cognition , social psychology , computer science , programming language , paleontology , set (abstract data type) , psychotherapist , biology , neuroscience
Reasoning about legal cases is a complex skill that imposes a high working memory load, especially for novice students. Not only do novices lack necessary conceptual knowledge, searching through the information sources that are used during reasoning can also be assumed to impose a high additional working memory load that does not contribute to learning. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of supporting novice law students' learning by (a) providing the meaning of important concepts in the case and (b) reducing the search process by providing a condensed (relevant articles only) rather than a complete civil code. Results show that performance on a test case (for which they had to use the complete civil code) was significantly better for participants who had used the condensed civil code during learning. Performance on a conceptual knowledge post‐test was significantly enhanced when students had received the concept explanations during learning. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.