A study examining the effectiveness of two instructional treatments on student achievement, motivation, and cognitive reasoning processes in a complex concept domain

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a concept-focused and a procedures-focused instructional approach on adult learner concept acquisition in terms of performance, motivation, and concept usage in reasoning. The concepts in the study consisted of complex defined concepts from a highly technical domain. Eleven students in a graduate instructional design program were assigned via stratified groups to one of two instructional treatment groups, one concept-focused and one procedures-focused. Learners in the Concept-Focused Group received conceptual relational database design instruction early in the instructional sequence, prior to procedural instruction. Learners in the Procedures-Focused Group were presented the identical conceptual information, but embedded throughout an instructional sequence that emphasized procedural knowledge. Significant positive differences were found for far transfer performance and motivation levels in learners between the two groups. Verbal protocol analysis revealed no differences in time or trial and error strategies learners in the two groups took to solve a far transfer problem. These findings suggest that a concept-focused instructional strategy can positively impact student learning and motivation when learning complex defined concepts, and can assist learners in developing a more accurate mental model of these complex concepts. Suggestions for future research are presented.