Effects of combining multiple types of adaptive guidance on novices’ knowledge integration of scientific phenomena

Throughout inquiry learning, many learners, especially novices, experience difficulties and make errors in applying inquiry skills. Because learners’ prior knowledge and difficulties in comprehending concepts and applying inquiry skills are unique, diagnosing learning situations and adapting guidance in real-time is essential. However, effects of combining multiple types of adaptive guidance to support inquiry learning have been understudied. This study investigated effects of combining primary guidance (just-in-time prompts) and supplementary guidance (hints and confirmatory feedback) on novice learners’ knowledge acquisition and integration of concepts and rules during (i.e., performance success) and after inquiry (i.e., learning outcomes). The study involved 98 undergraduate students. In a pretest-posttest, three-group experimental design, participants engaged in inquiry tasks to discover the rules of series circuits using a simulation of electric circuits. They were randomly assigned to either a prompt-plus group receiving hints and feedback in addition to prompts, a prompt group receiving prompts only, or a control group receiving no adaptive guidance. On performance success, the prompt-plus group outperformed both the prompt (p = .02) and control (p < .001) groups in the number of rules discovered, and showed higher knowledge integration of system-level rules than the control group (p < .001), while the prompt group also outperformed the control group in the number of rules discovered (p = .02). On the posttest, only the prompt-plus group statistically detectably outperformed the control group (p < .001), and the effect was mediated by the number of rules discovered. These results suggest combining forms of adaptive guidance can support performance and learning outcomes.