Previous research has shown that explaining is an effective activity to enhance learning. In prior studies, students were instructed to explain the contents after completing an entire learning phase. Explaining at the end of a learning phase, however, may be less apt to support comprehension monitoring and subsequent regulation activities. In 2 experiments, we investigated whether explaining in earlier phases of studying (i.e., in-between explaining) would foster learning more than explaining after the entire study phase (i.e., afterstudy explaining). In Experiment 1, university students (N = 91) read a text about combustion engines and either explained the contents between the study phases or at the end of the entire study phase. A third group recalled the learning contents aloud at the end of the study phase to control for retrieval-processes that may also be involved in explaining. Results showed no overall effect of explaining in comparison to retrieval practice. However, in-between explaining enhanced students’ conceptual knowledge as compared with afterstudy explaining. Verbal protocol analyses showed that this effect was due to students’ increased monitoring. Experiment 2 (N = 126), had a 2 × 2-factorial design with between-subjects factors timing (in-between vs. afterstudy) and learning activity (explaining vs. written retrieval practice). We found a cascaded trend: In-between learning activities were more effective than afterstudy learning activities, whereas explaining was more effective than written retrieval practice. These findings suggest that the timing of learning activities is crucial to improve learning. Additionally, our findings reveal that explaining is not simply a result of retrieval practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

中文翻译：

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时机很重要！在学习阶段之间进行解释可以提高学生的学习效果。

先前的研究表明，解释是一种提高学习效果的有效活动。在之前的研究中，学生被要求在完成整个学习阶段后解释内容。然而，在学习阶段结束时进行解释可能不太适合支持理解监控和随后的监管活动。在 2 个实验中，我们调查了在学习的早期阶段（即中间解释）进行解释是否比在整个研究阶段之后解释（即研究后解释）更能促进学习。在实验 1 中，大学生（N = 91）阅读了一篇关于内燃机的文章，并在学习阶段之间或整个学习阶段结束时解释了内容。第三组在学习阶段结束时大声回忆学习内容，以控制也可能涉及解释的检索过程。结果表明，与检索练习相比，解释没有整体效果。然而，与课后解释相比，中间解释增强了学生的概念知识。口头协议分析表明，这种影响是由于学生的监督增加。实验 2（N = 126）采用 2 × 2 因子设计，其中包含受试者间因素时间（中间与课后学习）和学习活动（解释与书面检索练习）。我们发现了一个级联趋势：中间学习活动比课后学习活动更有效，而解释比书面检索练习更有效。这些发现表明，学习活动的时间安排对于提高学习效果至关重要。此外，我们的研究结果表明，解释不仅仅是检索练习的结果。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）