Problem Solving: Anchored Instruction

John Bransford's Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt came up with the theory of anchored instruction which situates the learning of math in detailed multimedia stories or "macro-contexts." Anchored modules were originally designed for videodisc technology, but could be easily developed for web sites. The modules leveraged rich stories with embedded mathematical details, a bit like a multimedia word problem. Students had to pay attention and extract details from the stories to solve multi-step, ill-defined math problems. Learning in context. Click a few of the links on this page and see the story summaries to get an idea for how the group embedded math details in story lines.