Productive failure has shown positive effects on conceptual and transfer measures, but no clear effects on procedural measures. It is therefore an open question whether, and to what extent, productive failure methods may be used to enhance the learning of procedural skills. A typical productive failure study focuses on a single, complex concept; in contrast, procedural knowledge generally consists of a series of less-complex procedural steps. In this study, failure occasions were adapted to specifically fit procedural knowledge by introducing procedural problems prior to the formal instruction of relevant principles. These procedural problems offered brief but multiple occasions for failure, which we call micro productive failure. A total of 85 sixth-graders were introduced to algebraic expression simplification by providing problem-solving prior to instruction (PS-I condition), compared to providing problem-solving after instruction (I-PS condition). Findings reveal a stable effect of offering micro productive failure occasions for procedural learning; however, as anticipated, there were no effects on conceptual or transfer measures.

生产性失败对概念和转移措施显示出积极影响，但对程序措施没有明显影响。因此，是否可以使用生产失败方法以及在何种程度上使用生产失败方法来增强对过程技能的学习是一个悬而未决的问题。典型的生产性故障研究侧重于一个单一的、复杂的概念；相比之下，程序知识通常由一系列不太复杂的程序步骤组成。在这项研究中，通过在相关原则的正式指导之前引入程序问题，失败的场合被调整为专门适合程序知识。这些程序性问题提供了短暂但多次失败的机会，我们称之为微观生产性失败. 与在教学后提供问题解决（I-PS 条件）相比，共有 85 名六年级学生通过在教学前提供问题解决（PS-I 条件）来简化代数表达式。研究结果揭示了为程序学习提供微观生产失败机会的稳定效果；然而，正如预期的那样，对概念或转让措施没有影响。