How to Create Isomorphic Example-Problem Pairs for Facilitating Analogical Thinking

Worked-example and problem-solving are often paired and named as the example-problem learning method. This learning method is often recommended by cognitive load theorists, but not much thought has been given to what kind of problems should be used as the example-problem pairs. If there is no clear specification in using the method, as a result, there might be little to no improvement in students’ problem-solving ability. Particularly, the improvement of analogical thinking can be set as the goal of learning. Analogy comes when students can relate to their previous knowledge to solve new problems. In the example-problem learning method, the example can be acquired first and then regarded as the prior knowledge for students to solve the subsequent problem. As analogy is one of the problem-solving strategies, ultimately mastering analogy strategy can improve problem-solving ability. The problem is, analogy does not come naturally, hence a careful consideration about what kind of problems used during instruction is needed. In this paper, we propose the use of isomorphic problems— problems with the same solution procedures—in choosing the example-problem pair. We choose isomorphic problems because it suits example-problems learning and it is focused on improving student’s analogical thinking. We also propose the procedure in using the isomorphic problems.