Conceptualizing instructional explanation

Why Instructional Explanations Often Do Not Work: A Framework for Understanding the Effectiveness of Instructional Explanations

“…Explanations that are given in educational contexts qualify as instructional explanations because they are deliberately designed for the purpose of teaching (e.g., Leinhardt & Steele, 2005;Treagust & Harrison, 1999). Following Leinhardt (2001), they can be thought of as pedagogical actions reflecting an attempt to give answers to questions that are implicitly or explicitly posed by learners or teachers (see also G. Duffy, Roehler, Meloth, & Vavrus, 1986). For example, explanations in mathematics might provide learners with algorithmic procedures useful for solving algebra problems (e.g., Perry, 2000).…”

“…Only in educational settings where learners encounter content for the first time-for example, in classroom teaching (e.g., Ma, 1999) or in informal learning settings (e.g., Lave & Wenger, 1991)-has research more extensively appreciated the benefits of instructional explanations. For example, to understand how teachers' explanations support students in gaining a basic understanding of a domain, there have been attempts to uncover the properties of effective Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 15:03 04 December 2014 explanations (e.g., G. Duffy et al, 1986;Leinhardt, 2001;Leinhardt & Steele, 2005).…”

“…A benefit of giving explanations face to face is to monitor the learners' comprehension simultaneously and incorporate, if necessary, clarifying information to enhance the learners' understanding. This adaptive feature makes verbal explanations very effective in conveying educational material (G. Duffy et al, 1986). Nevertheless, it can be difficult for teachers to customize their explanations in cases where learners are reluctant to inform them about their lack of understanding.…”

Instructional behaviors for clearer presentations in the classroom

“…It is important that the presentation begins with information that is simple, concrete, familiar and explicit, then progresses to information that is increasingly complex, abstract, unfamiliar, unexplicit and long. Duffy et al (1985) suggest teachers present information from the perspective of a novice. By assuming such a student's perspective, the teacher can build a connective line between novice and expert understanding of information by reducing complex mental processes into a series of understandable steps and then presenting each step using sequence signals, i.e., first,... ; second ..... ; to help students organize the information..…”

“…and, not heating any, again assuming that everyone understands. Duffy et al (1985) noted that more able teachers in their studies of effective explanations in reading used the following sequence to check for understanding:…”