Think about the last time you had to solve a challenging math problem. Perhaps you felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. We know that there is substantial evidence suggesting that students should learn things like facts and foreign languages by practice testing themselves (1).
But how best do we learn mathematics, where students need both procedural knowledge (i.e., knowledge of the steps necessary to solve a problem) and conceptual knowledge (i.e., knowledge of domain principles)? That is, what study strategies are best for learning mathematics?
One study strategy that is helpful for learning math is to study a worked example. A worked example, like the one seen in the figure below, is a problem with the solution steps already worked out. Worked examples, paired with traditional problem-solving, have been found to be effective in helping students learn to solve problems across multiple domains, including mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science.
Sometimes, worked examples are accompanied by prompts for students to self-explain the steps involved.
