Vicarious learning

Vicarious Learning, although originally coined by Bandura () to refer to learning of behavior (e.g., aggression) form watching videos of that behavior, it is used here to refer to a instructional method that occurs when learners see and/or hear a learning situation (i.e., a observed learner in an instructional situation) for which they are not the addressees and do not interact with the observed learner nor the observed learner's instruction. Although the learning situation is often presented as video, the definition encompasses live vicarious learning, e.g., students watching another student at the front of the class interacting with the teacher.

When manipulated, this variable often involves a contrast with

• different kinds of learning situation being observed, e.g., a problem being solved by an instruction (e.g., Chi, Roy & Hausmann, in press; Craig et al. 2000; Driscoll et al. 2003), or
• different kinds of dyadic instruction, e.g., being a tutee. (Chi, Roy & Hausmann, in press; Craig et al., 2004; Craig, et al. 2006 )

"Learning by observing" is a somewhat broader term.

References

Craig, S., D., Gholson B., Ventura, M., Graesser, A. C., & the Tutoring Research Group. (2000). Overhearing dialogues and monologues in virtual tutoring sessions: effects on questioning and vicarious learning. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (Special Issue: Analyzing Educational Dialogue Interaction), 11, 242-253.