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- Vol 1 RE: Chapters 9, 12, App B
- Vol 2 RE: Chapters 8, 9
self-explanationgenerative inferenceprior-knowledge integrationmental-model revisioncoherent mental modelstransfer problem solvingexplanation qualityJournal article Evidence summaryAt a glance
Chi and colleagues test whether prompting students to explain a science text to themselves improves understanding.
Key ideas
Eighth-grade learners read a passage about the human circulatory system; those prompted to self-explain generated inferences, connected statements with prior knowledge, repaired gaps, and constructed more coherent mental models. They subsequently learned more and solved transfer problems better than students who read without the same explanation activity. Analyses showed that the quality and content of explanations mattered: productive self-explanation was not mere repetition, and learners differed in how extensively they revised their models. The work demonstrates a generative mechanism through which learners can make sense of incomplete instructional material.
Why it matters
For educators, it supports inserting prompts such as “explain why,” “how does this connect,” or “what follows,” modelling useful explanations, and checking their substance rather than counting how often students speak or write.
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Edition abbreviations
- TE
- Teacher Edition
- PE
- Practice Edition
- RE
- Research Edition
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