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.
Find this under Make modelling clearer
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
Sweller and Cooper showed students can learn more from studying worked examples than from solving equivalent problems, but a worked example on the board lasts only as long as the lesson allows.
Recording it changes the arithmetic. A screencast of the method can be paused, rewound and studied at each pupil's own pace, which suits the way novices need to see a process unfold.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
Working a full solution to a quadratic on screen, a teacher records the process, narration included, and posts it to the class page. That evening one pupil pauses at the factorising step three times; another skims to the final line to check their own working.
Try it
A way to begin
Record the worked example you were going to do anyway: point the approved screen recording tool at it while you teach, and share the result.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- Where the pauses and rewinds cluster, if your platform shows you.
- Whether pupils refer back to the method mid-practice, or only check final answers.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- The replay supplements the live modelling; the thinking aloud, the checks and the questions still happen in the room.
- Pairing recorded examples with practice problems, example then attempt, is where the next card takes this.
Technology second
Where technology fits
A screen recording made with the approved tool in your setting and shared through your learning platform is the whole setup; the value sits in the replayable method, not in production polish.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
Sweller and Cooper's worked example research, a central finding of cognitive load theory, is the direct source. The card’s attribution stands as published: Sweller & Cooper.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Explanations & Modelling.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 05 Explanations & Modelling, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.