Content structure and instructional control strategies as design variables in concept acquisition

Two instructional design variables were investigated that relate directly to the learning of coordinate concepts. The 1st variable, content structure, tested the hypothesis that simultaneous presentation of coordinate concepts enhances concept learning more than successive or collective presentation. In this study, the data analysis showed that 90 high school students who were given concepts simultaneously performed significantly better on the posttest than those who received concepts successively or collectively. The 2nd variable, instructional control strategy, contrasted an adaptive control strategy with a learner control strategy. Posttest performance was above the criterion level for the adaptive condition, but it was below the criterion level for the learner control condition. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).