Different Perspectives on the Role of Explanation and Exploration in Learning

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Explanation and exploration both play a critical role in learning. Learners are often confronted with questions and observations to explain, such as: What caused the ball to drop? What is the underlying pattern? Often these questions arise during exploration, and sometimes they arise during explicit instruction from a teacher. The four talks in this symposium will illustrate how perspectives drawn from philosophy, computational modeling, psychology and educational theory provide important insights into understanding how explanation and exploration influences learning in mathematics and science. The reported studies are from a range of learners and topics, from preschoolers learning about causal functions to college students learning statistics. Collectively, they will provide some explanations for how explanation and exploration influence learning.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Section 2a: Cognitive and Motivational Processes

Chair

• Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University

Papers

• Direct Instruction: More Than Meets the Eye - Patrick Shafto, University of Louisville

• The Unique and Selective Effects of Explanation and Exploration on Learning in Early Childhood - Cristine H Legare, The University of Texas Austin; Tania Lombrozo, University of California - Berkeley

• Learning From Explanation: The Timing and Source of Explanations for Learning Early Algebra - Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Vanderbilt University; Emily Ruth Fyfe, Vanderbilt University; Abbey M. Loehr, Vanderbilt University; Michael Robert Miller, Vanderbilt University

• Why Does Explaining “Why” Help Learning? A Subsumptive Constraints Account - Joseph Jay Williams, Harvard University; Tania Lombrozo, University of California - Berkeley

Discussant

• Alexander Renkl, University of Freiburg