Explaining one's own potentially incorrect ideas can reduce learning, while explaining known-correct content supports it¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (3 entries) · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Prompting middle-school students to explain their own often-incorrect predictions reduced subsequent success at making evidence-based claims relative to no explanation. → Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017 q2 i? Children who explained correct solutions solved more transfer problems than children who explained their own solutions, who did not differ from unprompted children. → Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017 (2) q2 i? Across multiple studies, learners prompted to explain both correct information and why incorrect information is incorrect gained better comprehension and transfer than learners explaining correct information alone. → Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017 (3)

Evidence¶

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017¶

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr. (2017). Eliciting explanations: Constraints on when self-explanation aids learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1501–1510. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1079-5

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports Kuhn & Katz (2009), where middle-school students on a scientific reasoning task were prompted to explain their own causal predictions or completed the task without explaining. Explainers showed reduced evidence-based claim success, attributed to focus on preexisting theories.

"Prompting children to explain their own predictions, which were often incorrect, reduced their subsequent success at making evidence-based claims relative to a no-explanation c ondition."

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017 (2)¶

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr. (2017). Eliciting explanations: Constraints on when self-explanation aids learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1501–1510. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1079-5

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports Siegler (1995), in which 5-year-olds were assigned to explain correct solutions after attempting problems, explain their own solutions before feedback, or solve with feedback only. The explain-correct condition produced the most correct transfer solutions.

"Children who explained correct solutions solved substantially more transfer problems correctly than children who explained their own solutions, who did not differ from children who were not prompted to explain."

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr 2017 (3)¶

Bethany Rittle-Johnson & Abbey M. Loehr. (2017). Eliciting explanations: Constraints on when self-explanation aids learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 1501–1510. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1079-5

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review reports a set of studies (e.g., Siegler & Chen 2008 on water displacement) contrasting explaining correct information alone with explaining correct plus incorrect exemplars. Explaining both "gained better comprehension and transfer," though two studies found sufficient prior knowledge was needed.

"In all of these studies, learners who were prompted to explain both correct and incorrect information gained better comprehension and transfer"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Self-explanation beats unguided studying for equal time, but instructional explanations, problem solving and retrieval practice can be equally or more effective — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Prompting learners to self-explain improves understanding and problem solving on immediate tests by a moderate average amount, with little evidence yet on delayed or classroom gains. — related
• Students who self-explain worked examples learn more effectively than those who do not, and the quality of self-explanations relates to explaining deep structure — related
• A brief metacognitive reflection prompt reduces acceptance of incorrect AI advice compared with open ChatGPT support alone — related
• Students who collected more peers' ideas wrote poorer explanations, while generating own redundant ideas related to better explanations — related
• Self-explanation prompts in an instructional video do not improve retention or comprehension when learning time is controlled — related
• Correct exemplars supported greater detection and correction of errors and omissions in explanations than a list of steps focused on structural aspects — related
• Frequent use of reflective prompts related to better strategic problem-solving and conceptual understanding — related
• Students using a worked-example revised probability textbook improved more in probabilistic reasoning than students using the standard textbook — related
• Adding a self-explanation feature to a base game improved transfer performance — related
• Correct and complete exemplar supports produced greater improvement in preservice teachers' fraction comparison explanations than supports displaying common misconceptions and errors — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Misconception-based adaptive feedback reduced mathematics anxiety and supported motivation without cognitive outcome differences — related