The Role of Worked Examples in Supporting Early Math Learning

Worked examples—step-by-step examples of how to solve a problem correctly or incorrectly—are known to promote algebraic thinking in middle and high school students. Whether they are useful in facilitating math learning in much younger students is unclear, however. The present study investigated how highlighting correct versus incorrect division strategies in a sharing context supports preschool children’s learning and transfer across division tasks. Two hundred and one children (ages 4.01–6.96 years, M = 5.57) viewed videos of agents dividing toys using either a correct (one-to-one turn-taking) or incorrect (i.e., error prone) strategy. The children were asked to explain what the agent had done correctly, what the agent had done incorrectly, or to simply identify the color of the agents’ shirts (Baseline condition). Afterwards, they completed two division tasks which required them to divide resources between two recipients (similar to training) and then between three recipients (novel division task). The results revealed that highlighting the correct or incorrect procedures led to improved performance on the division task relative to baseline, particularly for the youngest children completing the most challenging trials. Moreover, analyses of children’s explanations revealed that those children who spontaneously referenced the division process outperformed those who referenced the outcome or another aspect. These findings suggest that drawing attention to procedural strategies can facilitate division learning in early childhood, highlighting the importance of process-focused instruction as a mechanism for supporting early mathematical development.