The Content of Physics Self-Explanations
Abstract
Several earlier studies have found the amount learned while studying worked-out examples is proportional to the number of self-explanations generated while studying examples. A self-explanation is a comment about an example statement that contains domain-relevant information over and above what was stated in the example line itself. This article analyzes the specific content of self-explanations generated by students while studying physics examples. In particular, the content is analyzed into pieces of constituent knowledge that were used in the comments. These were further analyzed in order to trace the source of knowledge from which self-explanations. The first is deduction from knowledge acquired earlier while reading the text part of the chapter, usually by simply instantiating a general principle, concept, or procedure with information in the current example statements. Such construction of the content of the example statements yield new general knowledge that helps complete the students' otherwise incomplete understanding of the domain principles and concepts. The relevance of this research for instruction and models of explanation-based learning is discussed. Keywords: Learning from examples, Self explanations, Problem solving, Physics, Examples, Explanations. (JHD)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 22, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA229737
Entities
People
- Kurt A. Vanlehn
- Michelene T. Chi
Organizations
- University of Pittsburgh