Learning by writing explanations: Is explaining to a fictitious student more effective than self-explaining?

Andreas Lachner; Leonie Jacob; Vincent Hoogerheide

doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101438

Learning by writing explanations: Is explaining to a fictitious student more effective than self-explaining?

Andreas Lachner^*, Leonie Jacob, Vincent Hoogerheide

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that oral explaining to a fictitious student improves learning. Whether these findings replicate, when students are writing explanations, and whether instructional explaining is more effective than other explaining strategies, such as self-explaining, is unclear. In two experiments, we compared written instructional explaining to written self-explaining, and also included written retrieval and a baseline control condition. In Experiment 1 (N = 147, between-participants-design, laboratory experiment), we obtained no effect of explaining. In Experiment 2 (N = 50, within-participants-design, field-experiment), only self-explaining was more effective than our control conditions for attaining transfer. Self-explaining was more effective than instructional explaining. A cumulating meta-analysis on students’ learning revealed a small effect of instructional explaining on conceptual knowledge (g = 0.22), which was moderated by the modality of explaining (oral explaining > written explaining). These findings indicate that students who write explanations are better off self-explaining than explaining to a fictitious student.

Original language	English
Article number	101438
Pages (from-to)	1-13
Journal	Learning and Instruction
Volume	74
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101438
Publication status	Published - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa Döderlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosenträger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611 .

Funding Information:
Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa D?derlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosentr?ger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa Döderlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosenträger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611 . Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa D?derlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosentr?ger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611.

Keywords

Learning by explaining
Self-explaining
Retrieval practice
Generative learning

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10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101438

1-s2.0-S0959475220307337-mainFinal published version, 670 KBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

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title = "Learning by writing explanations: Is explaining to a fictitious student more effective than self-explaining?",

abstract = "Research has demonstrated that oral explaining to a fictitious student improves learning. Whether these findings replicate, when students are writing explanations, and whether instructional explaining is more effective than other explaining strategies, such as self-explaining, is unclear. In two experiments, we compared written instructional explaining to written self-explaining, and also included written retrieval and a baseline control condition. In Experiment 1 (N = 147, between-participants-design, laboratory experiment), we obtained no effect of explaining. In Experiment 2 (N = 50, within-participants-design, field-experiment), only self-explaining was more effective than our control conditions for attaining transfer. Self-explaining was more effective than instructional explaining. A cumulating meta-analysis on students{\textquoteright} learning revealed a small effect of instructional explaining on conceptual knowledge (g = 0.22), which was moderated by the modality of explaining (oral explaining > written explaining). These findings indicate that students who write explanations are better off self-explaining than explaining to a fictitious student.",

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note = "Funding Information: Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa D{\"o}derlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosentr{\"a}ger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611 . Funding Information: Data and analysis scripts can be viewed under doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/CZHTN. We would like to thank Louisa D?derlein, Eleonora Dolderer, and Anna Rosentr?ger for their assistance with many practical aspects during conducting the experiments. The research reported in this article was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) under contract number 01JA1611. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier Ltd",

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Learning by writing explanations: Is explaining to a fictitious student more effective than self-explaining?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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