Design self-explanation prompts aligned to target outcomes, favoring explanations of correct content¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (2 for, 3 mixed) · 2 studies (2 review), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that educators prompt self-explanation of content known to be correct, and additionally of why incorrect information is incorrect, rather than of learners' own potentially incorrect ideas. It further advises that "explanation prompts must be carefully designed to align with target learn-ing outcomes," since prompts direct attention to particular information and can draw effort away from other important information.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• The domain should be consistently guided by general principles or heuristics with few exceptions
• Prompt type should match the target learning outcome: why-prompts for conceptual knowledge, how-prompts for procedural transfer

Constraints¶

• Self-explanation of learners' own ideas is inadvisable unless problems are usually solved correctly or accuracy feedback is provided first

Target Learners¶

• students from preschool through adulthood learning principle-guided material

Target Learning Goals¶

• comprehension
• transfer of principles and procedures

Affordances¶

• Four Constraints Self Explanation Effectiveness Framework

Claims¶

• Explaining one's own potentially incorrect ideas can reduce learning, while explaining known-correct content supports it [+M]
• Explanation prompts direct attention to targeted information and can reduce attention to other important information [~M]
• Self-explanation beats unguided studying for equal time, but instructional explanations, problem solving and retrieval practice can be equally or more effective [~M]
• Self-explanation promotes transfer of general patterns but can reduce recall of details and cause overgeneralization [~M]
• 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 [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Clear Structure
• Consider alternatives to self-explanation — instructional explanations, sequenced problem solving, retrieval practice — given its time demands

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• 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