Alternate Examples and Practice

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Modelling & Worked Examples in 05 Explanations & Modelling, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Teach five examples then set ten problems and the method has faded before the first attempt. Atkinson's research supports a tighter weave: alternate worked examples with practice. Example, try. Example, try.

Each attempt comes while the example is still fresh, and each fresh example arrives just after pupils have discovered what they needed it for.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

On screen: a worked percentage-change example. Then a structurally identical problem for pupils to try. Then a second example with different numbers, then a second attempt. The display alternates between showing and asking for the length of the practice phase.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Error rates on the first attempt after each example, compared with the long-block approach you used before.
• Whether pupils look back at the example mid-attempt, and what they look for.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Parallel means genuinely parallel: same structure, different surface. A task that changes the structure is a new example pretending to be practice.
• How long to keep alternating before moving to unsupported problems is a fading decision, and that judgement belongs with the teacher who can see the attempts.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 📝 Worked Examples on Replay Sweller and Cooper: students learn more from worked examples than equivalent problems. Record a screencast of the example so students can pause and study the method at their pace. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
• 📉 Fade the Scaffolds Rosenshine: begin with full support, then fade. Show a complete example, then a partial one with gaps, then independent practice. Use fillable templates to structure the fading. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Modelling & Worked Examples
• 📚 Small Steps, Always Rosenshine: present new material in small steps with practice after each. Use animations to chunk information and reveal content gradually. Let students process before continuing. 05 Explanations & Modelling · Structuring Explanations
• 👥 Guided Practice Together Independence is the destination, not the starting point. Before students work alone, have them practise with peers in structured steps, checking each other's responses at every stage before moving forward. 02 Formative Assessment · Students as Learning Resources

Technology second

Where technology fits

The pattern needs nothing more than a display for the example and a task alongside it, using the approved tools in your setting.

The example-try rhythm eats parallel practice questions. Drafting them, matched to your worked example, is a strong use of AI through the approved tool in your setting:

Act as a secondary maths teacher. Below is a worked example I will model for Year 9. Create four practice problems that follow exactly the same method and structure, changing only the numbers and surface context.

Order them from most similar to the example to least. Do not include solutions, hints or method notes.

[paste your worked example here]

Check each problem really does exercise the same method, not a lookalike that needs a different move; that's the check only a subject teacher can make. Iterate until the set is right, then run example, try, example, try.

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Atkinson's work on alternating examples with practice builds directly on Sweller's worked example effect; the two are cited together on the card for good reason. The card’s attribution stands as published: Atkinson; Sweller.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.