The effect of instructional explanations and self-explanation prompts in worked examples on student learning and transfer

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of different types of worked examples on student learning and transfer of a problem-solving task. Four types of worked examples were examined: standard worked examples, worked examples with self-explanation prompts, worked examples with instructional explanations, and worked examples with a combination of instructional explanations and self-explanation prompts. Two hundred and five middle school students were randomly assigned to the treatment conditions and a control condition. All students studied a serf-paced instructional program on using two comma rules. Students in each worked example condition received condition-specific example-problem pairs during practice, while students in the control group received problems without any worked examples. Learning, transfer, and time on task were measured. Analysis of the data indicated that using instructional explanations and self-explanation prompts with worked examples had a positive effect on learning.