IS SELF-EXPLANATION WHILE SOLVING PROBLEMS HELPFUL - THE CASE OF ANALOGICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING

Background. Explanations people give themselves (or what are called se lf-explanations) while learning have been shown to be positively assoc iated with various learning measures. However, the effect of self-expl anation on analogical problem-solving has not been investigated. Aim. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between self-expl anation and analogical problem-solving. Sample. Twenty-four university students from the social science faculty. All the students were in th eir early twenties, 75 per cent of them being females. Method. The stu dents were asked to solve three analytical reasoning problems (one lea rning problem and two test problems). The students were prompted eithe r to self-explain or to think-aloud. During the problem-solving, verba l protocols were tape-recorded. Results. Students prompted to self-exp lain performed better in the test phase. The analysis of verbal protoc ols from good and poor solvers allowed us to identify four categories of self-explanation; Three categories were positively associated with analogical problem-solving. However, one category pertaining to the 's urface structure' of the problems studied had detrimental effects on f urther problem-solving. Conclusions. In contrast to previous findings, only certain kinds of self-explanations improve analogical problem-so lving. We suggest, therefore, that the role of certain self-explanatio n is to support better the representation of solution schemes.