Totally disagree. ‘Same for self-learners: In a book, you can tell the reader to start at some state X, roll a die, etc.’ ->
This requires a learner to parse a procedure correctly AND understand how it relates to the topic. This is both doubly harder on the student and doubly likely to force a mistake (either in the procedure, interpretation, or both). Learning with an approach as given in the article approximately halves the work a learner must do, and increases the likelihood that the topic is correctly interpreted.
Retention with this method, however, is a whole other matter- one that does correlate with the amount of mental effort required, but how much so is a matter of debate.
This requires a learner to parse a procedure correctly AND understand how it relates to the topic. This is both doubly harder on the student and doubly likely to force a mistake (either in the procedure, interpretation, or both). Learning with an approach as given in the article approximately halves the work a learner must do, and increases the likelihood that the topic is correctly interpreted.
Retention with this method, however, is a whole other matter- one that does correlate with the amount of mental effort required, but how much so is a matter of debate.