Learner control over task formats in competence based education: Effects on task involvement and transfer

Recent instructional theories focus on authentic learning tasks that are based on real-life tasks as the driving force for learning. The general assumption is that such tasks help students to integrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for effective task performance; give them the opportunity to learn to co-ordinate constituent skills that make up complex behavior, and eventually enable them to transfer what is learned to daily life or work settings. A severe risk of all of these approaches is that students have difficulties learning because they are overwhelmed by the task complexity, which may also impair their motivation to learn. It is thus critical that the difficulty of the learning tasks and/or the level of support that is provided by the learning tasks are adjusted to the students’ abilities and current level of performance. One promising way to reach this goal is to give the learners themselves control over the selection and formats of learning tasks – although it may be desirable to provide guidance for the selection process. The aim of the proposed project is to study the effects of (guided) learner control over task formats on motivation (in particular, task involvement) and transfer test performance.