Making explaining less scary could boost learning

Research has revealed all kinds of insights into which learning strategies are the most effective. However, there's little overlap between the strategies identified as being the best and those that learners actually use, write Stav Atir and Jane L. Risen in a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Explaining the material to someone else — or even just to yourself — is highly effective, they note, but this approach is rarely adopted. They therefore set out to explore why this is, and whether it's possible to increase learners' willingness to try it.

In an initial online study, 282 online participants from the US and the UK watched a video about how GPS works, and were told that they'd be taking a test on the content (though this test did not happen). Immediately after watching the video, they rated how knowledgeable they felt about GPS, and also their interest in trying a number of different learning strategies. These included writing an explanation of how GPS works, as if they were informing someone else (an 'explaining' strategy) or rewatching one of the video sections and typing notes on it (a 'reviewing' strategy).

The researchers found that overall, the participants preferred the non-explaining strategies, which took just as much effort as the more effective explaining approach. They also found that those who felt less knowledgeable about GPS were less likely to opt for the explaining strategy.

Of course, if this strategy is in fact less effective for people with more limited knowledge, it could be sensible to avoid it. However, a second online study of 834 US-based participants, who watched the video about GPS and were later tested suggested that this isn't the case. The researchers found that those assigned to try the written explaining strategy did better on the test than a control group (who wrote about something else entirely) "regardless of subjective knowledge and interest in explaining". In other words, it was a better strategy even for people who felt they hadn't thoroughly grasped the contents of the video.

In two subsequent studies, Atir and Risen looked at whether they could encourage learners to want to try explaining. In the first of these studies, 348 participants all watched the GPS video, then one group was asked a set of very easy questions about the material, while another group was asked eight difficult questions about it. The researchers found that those who'd been asked the easy questions — and so led to believe that they knew more about it than they might have thought — felt more knowledgeable about the material. They were also more willing to try an explaining learning strategy, which they were more likely to expect to be both pleasant and effective than the other group.

A further online experiment revealed that just reading that explaining is a pleasant or an effective learning strategy increased participants' willingness to try it, whatever their self-rated level of knowledge after watching the GPS video.

Finally, the researchers explored whether these results would hold with actual students. After a biology class on glycolysis, they self-reported their knowledge of the topic. They also rated their belief that writing an explanation would help them to better understand and learn the material, and their willingness to try this approach. One group was assigned to use this strategy, and were asked to pretend that they had to explain glycolysis to a fellow student who hadn't been at the lecture, while the other group was asked to review their notes instead. They were all then tested.

Consistent with the results from the online studies, the researchers found that those who felt less knowledgeable were less keen on trying the explaining strategy — but the students who used it did better on the test.

Explaining a topic is a better learning strategy than reviewing notes because it challenges the individual's understanding of the material, and forces them to reflect on it, the team shares. Their finding that participants who were the least confident about their knowledge of the material were most reluctant to use this strategy is worrying, they write, because in an academic setting, it may cause them to fall even further behind, "creating a vicious cycle of underperformance."

This research suggests that if all students can be encouraged to feel that explaining is a fun and effective way to learn, or to feel that they actually know more than they think, the weaker students could benefit too. Atir and Risen would also like to see more research into not just into which strategies are the most effective, but which are popular in the real world. "There is still much to learn about how learners learn," they write. "A better understanding of how and why people choose to study as they do is critical for improving learning outcomes for all — including those who need it most."  

Read the paper in full:
Atir, S., & Risen, J. L. (2024). The paradox of explaining: When feeling unknowledgeable prevents learners from engaging in effective learning strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001679

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