Helping kids learn math and science: Why kids benefit when they teach others
© 2009 -2013 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
Want to help your kids learn math and science?
Ask them explain—or, better yet—teach what they are learning in their own words.
This simple tactic can help kids master new material.
You’ve probably experienced it yourself. People become better problem-solvers when they are asked to explain how or why a solution is correct.
Explaining is an especially effective learning aid when people try to teach another person. But it’s also helpful if they merely explain their reasoning to themselves.
For instance, a study of novice chess players found that individuals who were told to explain a computer’s moves became better players than people who simply observed the computer’s moves (de Bruin et al 2006).
And here’s another example: In a study of 9th graders, students were presented with a new geometry theorem. Some students were trained to “self-explain” as they studied. Other students were allowed to study in their usual ways.
When the teens were tested on their overall comprehension, the “self-explainers” had the advantage. They were better able to solve new problems that were superficially different, yet conceptually connected with the assigned theorem (Wong et al 2002).
Explaining appears to help younger kids, too. In one study, Bethany Rittle-Johnson and her colleagues (2008) gave 5-year olds some pattern-detection problems to solve.
Each problem consisted of a sequence of 6 plastic bugs—e.g.,
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And kids were asked what comes next (e.g., a red spider).
After each child gave his answer, the experimenter told him the correct answer. Then the experimenter asked the child to explain the correct answer.
Compared to kids who were asked merely to repeat the right answer out loud, the “explainers” went on to become better problem solvers. When they were asked to solve a new set of pattern-detection problems, they were more likely to get the right solutions.
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