Learning from Diagrams: Effects of Strategy Training

The present study evaluated effects of a multiple-strategy training on student learning from biological process diagrams. The training focussed on a stepwise working-routine that included when and where to employ cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies and on affective strategies to invest effort in the implementation of this stepwise working-routine. The study followed an experimental pretest-posttest design. Students (N = 180) were randomly assigned to the training or the comparison group. We did not find a significant direct effect of multiple-strategy training on learning from biological process diagrams. However, we found a positive significant effect of multiple-strategy training, mediated by invested mental effort, on learning from process diagrams.