What evidence exists regarding anchored instruction and its effectiveness as a pedagogical design?
In her 2021 article, Anchored Instruction, Kathryn Cook discusses the research conducted on the topic and provides evidence of its effectiveness. Bottge et al. (2004) as cited by Cook (2021) shared that “students were better able to maintain and transfer what they learned several weeks later when compared with students taught with traditional word problems.” Cook (2021) also shared from Glaser et al. (1999) that students were more engaged with the learning process when taught using anchored instruction as student-teacher interactions more than doubled. Anchored instruction allows space for collaboration and cooperation. The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992) shared that “cooperative learning and cooperative problem-solving groups enhance opportunities for generative learning” (p 68). This kind of learning requires difficult problems, and when a group member “can provide meaningful explanations to their partners, problem-solving improves over individual performance” (Webb, 1989,1991 as cited by Vye et al., 1997, p. 439).
What are some important nuances of the research that are pertinent to your practice?
The most pertinent takeaway of the readings on the Jasper series, for me, was that it really requires pedagogical practice. As Vye et al. (1997) discuss, for anchored instruction to be successful in the classroom, the teacher needs to facilitate the environment that supports it. Sharing ideas, being open to trying new things, and feeling confident explaining yourself are just some of the norms that need to be present in order for a pedagogical technique like anchored instruction to function at its best and most effective. As much as we can hope our students are going to take on challenges like this with an open mind, the reality is this is not the environment they are used to in the math classroom specifically. As such, it is going to take practice as both the teacher and the student in creating a classroom culture that will encourage anchored instruction.
What further inquiries or questions does the research reported in the articles raise for you (e.g. regarding evaluation, professional development, disabilities and/or the content area you teach or would like to promote etc)?
The most significant question that this research has raised for me, is how we, as educators, can become skilled enough to implement anchored instruction to be at its most impactful. Evidently, there is a need for professional development in this area. Vye et al. (1997) share from Ball & Rundquist (1993) and Heaton & Lampert (1993) how educators often don’t actually have enough mathematical and pedagogical knowledge to successfully implement this type of learning. As transformative as anchored instruction may be, teachers need to feel confident with the approach and capable of facilitating learning in an inquiry-based and contextual environment. Could mentorship be something useful to help teachers newer to this approach? We cannot become experts overnight, so there is a need for supporting teachers to master this method.
Finally, in what ways might a current technology for math (Eg. IXL Math, Dragonbox, Math Genius or others) relate to this question?
After looking for a few different technologies, I came across MathVC. It is an LLM-powered virtual classroom that can help real-life students work on strengthening their mathematical modelling (MM) skills. MathVC provides the opportunity to collaborate and effectively discuss math modelling when in-person, classroom opportunities are not possible. Similar to the anchored instruction technique, working in groups is prioritized and foundational to MathVC. The argument made from the creators of MathVC is that “practicing the MM skill is often the most effective when students can engage in group discussion and collaborative problem-solving” (Yue et al., 2025). The Jasper series takes on a similar challenge in having students work in groups to come up with solutions. The reality is, in order to prepare our students to enter the workforce, they need to be able to successfully collaborate. Allowing opportunities for these skills to be practiced alongside curricular topics is a powerful way to implement anchored instruction.
References
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992a). The Jasper experiment: An exploration of issues in learning and instructional design. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 40(1), 65-80.
Cook, K. (2021). Anchored instruction. EBSCO. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/anchored-instruction
Vye, Nancy J.; Goldman, Susan R.; Voss, James F.; Hmelo, Cindy; Williams, Susan (1997). Complex mathematical problem solving by individuals and dyads. Cognition and Instruction, 15(4), 435-450.
Yue, M., Whenham, L., Suh, J., Zhang, Y., & Yao, Z. (2025) Math VC: An LLM-simulated multi-persona virtual classroom for collaborative mathematical problem solving. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.06711