Self-explanation: Meta-cognitive vs. justification prompts
Contents
The Effects of Interaction on Robust Learning
Robert Hausmann and Kurt VanLehn
Summary Table
| PIs | Robert G.M. Hausmann & Kurt VanLehn |
| Other Contributers | Robert N. Shelby (USNA), Brett van de Sande (Pitt) |
| Study Start Date | Sept. 1, 2006 |
| Study End Date | Aug. 31, 2007 |
| LearnLab Site | none (in vitro study) |
| LearnLab Course | Physics |
| Number of Students | N = 39 |
| Total Participant Hours | 78 hrs. |
| DataShop | Loaded: 11/02/07 |
Abstract
The literature on studying examples and text in general shows that students learn more when they are prompted to self-explain the text as they read it. Experimenters have generally used two types of prompts: meta-cognitive and justification. An example of a meta-cognitive prompt would be, "What did this sentence tell you that you didn't already know?" and an example of a justification prompt would be, "What reasoning or principles justifies this sentence's claim?" To date, no study has included both types of prompts, and yet there are good theoretical reasons to expect them to have differential impacts on student learning. This study will directly compare them in a single experiment using high schools physics students.
Background and Significance
Glossary
Research question
How is robust learning affected by self-explanation vs. jointly constructed explanations?
Independent variables
Only one independent variable, with two levels, was used:
- Explanation-construction: individually constructed explanations vs. jointly constructed explanations
Prompting for an explanation was intended to increase the probability that the individual or dyad will traverse a useful learning-event path.
Hypothesis
Dependent variables
- Near transfer, immediate: electrodynamics problems solved in Andes during the laboratory period (2 hrs.).
Results
Laboratory Experiment
Procedure
