Equation Instruction: A Comparison of Balance and Inverse Methods

Cognitive load theory (Sweller 1988; Sweller and Van Merrienboer, 1998) proposes the need to design instructions to avoid overloading cognitive capacity to assimilate information. In two experiments, the inverse method has facilitated solving equations more than the balance method. The inverse method emphasizes the use of inverse operation to remove numbers associated with the pronumeral; whereas the balance method requires learners to write down the inverse operation performed to balance the equations. Differential performance between the two methods has been interpreted in the light of the extraneous cognitive load associated with the balance method.