Self-explanation and worked examples

Step 1 Warm-up recall

From M5.L1: name one question type that builds links.

Your answer

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Step 2 Learning goal

By the end of this lesson you can:

• explain the worked example effect (Foundation);
• self-explain a worked step (Core);
• plan fading across a practice set (Core).

Step 3 A familiar example

A driving instructor first drives while you watch and talk through each choice, then lets you do part of it, and finally leaves you alone at the wheel.

Step 4 Clear explanation

For beginners, searching for a method while also doing the problem can overload working memory. Sweller and Cooper (1985) found that studying worked examples could help novices learn more than solving the same problems unaided. Studying the example is not enough: self-explanation means saying why each step was taken. Chi and colleagues (1989) found that students who explained examples to themselves learned more than those who did not.

As skill grows, the examples become unnecessary or even a hindrance, so support is faded: first full examples, then completion problems with a step left out, then full problems. An invented plan for 12 problems:

Check: 3 + 4 + 5 = 12. Self-explain at every step: why this operation, why this order, what would change if a number changed? Expert learners gain less from worked examples, a point called the expertise reversal effect. See the entry on retrieval practice; the full problems at the end are the retrieval stage.

Step 5 Worked example (4 marks)

A set has 15 problems: 4 worked examples, then completion problems, with the other 6 being full problems. How many completion problems?

1. Worked plus full: 4 + 6 = 10. (1 mark)
2. Completion = 15 − 10. (1 mark)
3. Completion = 5. (1 mark)
4. Answer: 5 completion problems. (1 mark)

Step 6 Learner practice (instant-marked)

Step 7 Recap

• Novices learn well from worked examples.
• Explain every step to yourself.
• Fade support as skill grows.

Step 8 Exit ticket (ungraded)

A set has 10 problems: 2 worked, 3 completion. How many full?

Your answer

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Step 9 Go further (Extension)

Take one worked example from your course and write the reason beside each step.