Performance Improvement • Volume 42 • Number 4 41

BOOK REVIEW

The Promise of EducationalPsychology (Vol II): Teachingfor Meaningful Learningby Richard E. Mayer reviewed by Ruth Clark

Teaching for Meaningful Learning summarizes the research on all majorinstructional strategies that promote transfer of learning. This very read-able book offers nine chapters spanning topics from the use of simula-tions, guided discovery, and inductive versus deductive learning, to

guidelines for building problemsolving strategies.

Three Reasons to Read This Book

If any of your human performance technology (HPT) interventions involve train-ing, put Teaching for Meaningful Learning on your reading list. Here’s why.

HPT and the Book Are Both About Transfer of Learning

This is a book about transfer of learning. The author summarizes this in the intro-duction: “My thesis is that teaching should promote not only retention—remem-bering what was taught—but also transfer—using what was taught to solve newproblems” (p. 3). HPT practitioners who offer training as an intervention must befocused on transfer, because without transfer there can be no performanceimprovement. Therefore, instructional strategies that promote transfer are anessential component of the HPT toolkit. Yet there is no single approach to trans-fer. Teaching for Meaningful Learning provides a concise description of the mostresearched techniques for promoting transfer of learning.

Transfer Strategies Are Based on Research

The guidelines in Teaching for Meaningful Learning are based on controlledresearch studies, not just the latest training fads or folk wisdom. Rich Mayer isone of the most influential instructional psychologists in the world. As faculty atthe University of California at Santa Barbara, the number of research studies hehas conducted on instructional methods numbers into the hundreds. If you arenot familiar with his work, it is likely because it mostly appears in research jour-nals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, which may not be part ofyour regular reading agenda. I am an advocate of evidence-based practice tomove our profession forward. If you agree, you can quickly get updated on trans-fer-related research with this one book.

The Book Is Readable

Rich Mayer has authored or coauthored more than 255 articles and 14 books.Unlike many academics, his writing is clear and coherent. He practices what hepreaches by using text signals such as headers and outlines, advance organizers,and abundant illustrations to complement the textual information. Teaching forMeaningful Learning contains some of the most lucid descriptions of educationalpsychology research studies and what they mean.

42 www.ispi.org • APRIL 2003

An Overview

The main focus of the book is problemsolving transfer,which occurs successfully when a person uses knowledgefrom previous experience (such as training) to devise a solu-tion to a new problem (on the job). You will read about waysyou can create instructional environments that promoteunderstanding. The chapters are organized around group-ings of instructional strategies that lead to success in learn-ing. There is no prerequisite sequence to the chapters, sothe book works well if you just select the chapters thataddress transfer issues relevant to your situation. Followingis a short summary of the chapter themes.

The Use of Feedback to Promote Learning: Chapter 2 looksat ways feedback can modify classroom behaviors, learningof responses (drill and practice), concepts, and skills. Ingeneral, practice without feedback does not lead to learning.Feedback is effective to the extent that it provides informa-tion to learners, telling them not only whether theirresponses are right or wrong, but also why.

The Use of Concreteness, Activity, and Familiarity: Frommanipulatives such as beads and rods used to teach mathe-matical principles to computer simulations in science,Chapter 3 discusses the transfer benefits of concretizingabstract concepts or procedures. You will find an interestingcomparison of discovery, guided discovery, and expositoryinstructional environments as well as discussion of the trade-offs of deductive versus inductive approaches to instruction.

The Use of Worked Examples: A great deal of research inthe 1990s reported the power of effectively designedworked examples to build mental models in learners, withthe newly built mental models leading to transfer. The chap-ter discusses the best way to present worked examples ininstruction and gives tips to help learners maximize theiruse of worked examples. A discussion of case-based learn-ing compares retrospective case learning, such as viewingvideo cases of expert practitioners, to interactive case learn-ing in which learners try to solve job-realistic problems andreceive realistic feedback.

The Use of Techniques to Guide Cognitive Processes: Thischapter focuses on ways you can maximize learning fromprose, including use of adjunct questions, signals (such astext headers, outlines, and summaries), and advance orga-nizers. The information in this chapter will be especiallyuseful to anyone who prepares instructional materials fordelivery either via books or on a computer.

The Use of Learning Strategies: Unlike other chapters, thefocus here is on things learners can do to maximize theirlearning. It includes summaries of research on mnemonicsfor memorization of factual information, the use of knowl-edge maps to structure information in lessons, and theeffects of note-taking on learning.

The Use of Problemsolving Strategies: As much of contem-porary knowledge work involves problemsolving, this is a

particularly relevant chapter for many HPT professionals. Itsummarizes the research on four key issues related to teach-ing problem-solving strategies: • What to teach—general intellectual ability or smaller

focused skills• Where to teach—in separate courses or within existing

subject areas• How to teach—whether to focus on product or process• When to teach—whether to teach problemsolving after

basic skill training or at earlier points in instruction

Included is an interesting summary of extensive programsdesigned to improve general problemsolving skills, howthey were designed, and how well they worked.

Creating Cognitive Apprenticeship in the Classroom: Chapter8 takes on the role of social interactions in mediating learning.Included are three core methods whereby people participatein a community of practice in the classroom cognitive appren-ticeship including: modeling, coaching, and scaffolding. Youwill read the research on cooperative learning with a discus-sion of what factors lead to improved learning in groups.

Motivation: This is a challenging topic to articulate in ameaningful way because there has been a great deal ofrecent research and discussion of various models of motiva-tion—with no single one predominating. Motivation inTeaching for Meaningful Learning is defined as anythingthat makes students work hard. This chapter meets the chal-lenge by focusing on three prominent views of motivation: • interest (distinguishing between situational and

cognitive interest) • self-efficacy • attribution

Strengths

If you are too busy to tackle academic research summaries(which are often poorly written) but you would like to findout what we do know now about promoting transfer ininstruction, this book is for you. You will read clear and easy-to understand descriptions of instructional strategies you canuse to build the kinds of mental models that promote prob-lemsolving transfer. For each major strategy, a clear descrip-tion of relevant research that supports its use is presented.Most include graphic illustrations of the research results.

Limits

I suspect that Teaching for Meaningful Learning was notspecifically written for HPT readers or for training profession-als. Thus, much of the context of the book is more about edu-cational rather than training environments. In some cases, thiswon’t pose much of a barrier to transferring the ideas to a set-ting. In other cases, readers will need to determine to whatextent the guidelines may apply to their environment.

However, readers should have no problem finding plenty ofrelevant information for their own applications. For example,I was working with a high-technology company that relied

Performance Improvement • Volume 42 • Number 4 43

primarily on highly guided step-by-step procedural exercisesin its training programs. I wanted to provide some models andguidelines to help them build more robust instructional envi-ronments—environments that would build richer mentalmodels. Some of the ways I applied the guidelines in Teachingfor Meaningful Learning include the following:• Inductive simulations to build mental models of “how

computer code works.” In these e-learning simulationslearners could drag and drop alternative variables intocode samples and “see” the effect on the output.

• Case studies to provide more robust practice opportuni-ties than step-by-step procedure exercises.

• Guided discovery learning environments for moreadvanced technical students.

• Collaborative activities to leverage the learning benefitsof social interactions.

This is not the kind of a book to read from start to finish—although one certainly could do so. For me, at least, it’s thekind of book to keep nearby on the shelf to reference whenworking in the context of specific training goals. Most cer-tainly it contains valuable information about transfer strate-gies for those immersed in training and performanceimprovement professions.

Publisher InformationISBN: 0-13-096444-1Merrill Prentice HallPhone: 800-282-0693Price: $31.00

Reviewer BioAs President of Clark Training and Consulting (www.Clarktraining.com) since1989, Ruth Clark and her staff offer research-based seminars and consult-ing services on needs assessment and design of training for classroom and e-learning. Ruth has authored three books, including Developing Technical Trainingand Building Expertise, recipient of the ISPI Outstanding Communication award.Her most recent book, E-Learning & the Science of Instruction, is coauthoredwith Dr. Richard Mayer. A science undergraduate, Ruth completed her doctor-ate in Instructional Psychology/ Educational Technology in 1988 at theUniversity of Southern California. Ruth is a past president of the InternationalSociety of Performance Improvement and a member of the AmericanEducational Research Association.

Author BioRichard E. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of California,Santa Barbara (UCSB). His research involves the intersection of cognition,instruction, and technology with a special focus on multimedia learning. He isPast President of the Division of Educational Psychology of the AmericanPsychological Association, former Chair of the UCSB Department of Psychology,and the year 2000 recipient of the E. L. Thorndike Award for career achievementin educational psychology. He is the author of 14 books and more than 250 arti-cles and chapters, including The Promise of Educational Psychology (Vols I andII) (1999, 2002), Multimedia Learning (2001), and E-Learning and the Scienceof Instruction (2002).

Erika Gilmore, PI Book Review Editor, is the Continuous ImprovementAdministrator for Oxford Automotive in Greencastle, Indiana. Her areas ofexpertise include performance improvement, training, team building, groupfacilitation, and associated labor relations. Erika is a doctoral candidate inInstructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. She can be contactedby phone: (765) 658-2431; email: egilmore@oxauto.com.

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