Instruction Based on Self-Explanation

INTRODUCTION Over twenty years of research has documented the fact that explaining a concept aloud to oneself enhances learning and aids in comprehension monitoring. How powerful is this technique and to what extent is it superior to many other, more commonly employed learning strategies? The goal of this chapter is to review the literature on the self-explanation effect in the context of a theoretical framework based on the overt activities of the learner. We begin with a discussion of the self-explanation effect, followed by a brief description of the passive-active-constructive-interactive theoretical framework. Then we compare self-explaining with other learning strategies in the context of this framework.