Effects of Self-Explanations of Different Quality on Learning With Scientific Text

• In Event: Science Teaching and Learning: Student Discourse and Sense-Making

Abstract

Quality of self-explanations is a critical factor accounting for the mixed findings regarding its effectiveness. However, little is known about what kind of self-explanation is beneficial to learning scientific texts. The present study used a classroom-based experimental design to compare the effects of prompted self-explanations of different levels of quality on recall and understanding of a scientific text. In this study, 337 college students were assigned to high accuracy-high completeness group, high accuracy-low completeness group, low accuracy-low completeness group and no prompted self-explanation group based on the quality of explanations. The results showed that high accuracy-high completeness group significantly outperformed other three groups on recall, while low accuracy-low completeness self-explanations led to decreased learning as compared to no prompted self-explanations.

Authors

• Weijie Mao, East China Normal University

• Zhe Wang, East China Normal University

• Olusola Olalekan Adesope, Washington State University

• Hao Lei, East China Normal University