Analysing the Use of Worked Examples and Tutored and Untutored Problem-Solving in a Dispositional Learning Analytics Context

The identification of students’ learning strategies by using multi-modal data that combine trace data with self-report data is the prime aim of this study. Our context is an application of dispositional learning analytics in a large introductory course mathematics and statistics, based on blended learning. Building on previous studies in which we found marked differences in how students use worked examples as a learning strategy, we compare different profiles of learning strategies on learning dispositions and learning outcome. Our results cast a new light on the issue of efficiency of learning by worked examples, tutored and untutored problem-solving: in contexts where students can apply their own preferred learning strategy, we find that learning strategies depend on learning dispositions. As a result, learning dispositions will have a confounding effect when studying the efficiency of worked examples as a learning strategy in an ecologically valid context.