Dynamic Exploration on Self-explanation Prompts in Complex Tasks

Abstract

This study explored the effects of the focus (inference or inference followed by integration) and assistance level (less vs. more) in self-explanation (“SE”) prompts on learning outcomes measured by procedural- and conceptual knowledge and whether these improvements persisted over time. A total of 129 South Korean students who enrolled in economic instruction were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: IF-LA, IT-LA, IF-MA and IT-MA. The results revealed that there was an interaction effect of the focus and level of assistance of SE prompts on delayed conceptual knowledge. Prompts that focused on inference followed by integration resulted in significantly higher immediate conceptual knowledge test scores than prompts that focused only on inference. These findings indicated that SE prompt must be designed considering these two factors according to target knowledge.