Claims

Generating questions is effective for university students but likely ineffective for younger elementary students, working at intermediate ages only with instructional scaffolding

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2–q3 · i1 small
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i1 A meta-analysis of question-generation training found positive overall effects (0.35 SDs standardized, 0.82 SDs non-standardized tests), but only one of four third-grade studies showed effects. → Garvin Brod 2021 q2 i? Self-generated questions were less effective than provided questions and not more effective than rereading across fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders, though relative effectiveness and question quality increased with age. → Garvin Brod 2021 (2)

Evidence

Garvin Brod 2021

Garvin Brod. (2021). Generative Learning: Which Strategies for What Age? Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09571-9

q3 · i1 · review · r3

The review reports Rosenshine et al.'s meta-analysis of question-generation training interventions, with an overall effect size of 0.35 SDs on standardized tests and 0.82 SDs on non-standardized tests; college students consistently benefited but only one of four third-grade studies did, with mixed results for grades 4–9.

"revealed a positive overall effect on comprehension tested at the end of the intervention (0.35 SDs for standardized tests and 0.82 SDs for non-standardized tests)."

Garvin Brod 2021 (2)

Garvin Brod. (2021). Generative Learning: Which Strategies for What Age? Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09571-9

q2 · i? · review · r3

A direct age-comparative study found self-generated questions inferior to provided questions and no better than rereading at all three grade levels, though relative effectiveness and the number of conceptual questions increased with age, attributed to better metacognitive abilities.

"It compared text comprehension in fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-graders and found that self-generated questions were less effective than provided questions and not more effective than rereading in promoting comprehension across all age groups."

Discussion

Learner Variables

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id question-generation-ineffective-young
title Generating questions is effective for university students but likely ineffective for younger elementary students, working at intermediate ages only with instructional scaffolding
description Generating questions is effective for university students but likely ineffective for younger elementary students, working at intermediate ages only with instructional scaffolding
status review
evidence_strength moderate
newest_evidence 2021
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — garvin-brod-2021, garvin-brod-2021-2

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