Reducing Cognitive Load in Learning by Analogy

The ability to draw connections between concepts, problems, or representations is crucial to mathematical proficiency, though teachers face challenges in capitalizing on classroom opportunities to develop such connected thinking. An experiment with fifth-grade students tests theoretically grounded cuing strategies for supporting learning from instructional analogies. Posttest results indicate that an analogy between division of natural numbers and rational numbers improved students ' proficiency in dividing fractions regardless of the addition of analogical cuing strategies, but that the additional cuing led to more conceptual, flexible problem solving. These cuing strategies may be effective ways to enhance students ' ability to draw connections acros