Recent studies have shown that self-explanation is an effective strategy and shown that generating explanations to oneself fosters students to monitor and revise their mental models. However, students cannot monitor their mental model so easily. This study investigated whether self-explanation can be useful in a classroom environment combining illustrations that makes clealy for students to monitor their mental model. Forty-two eighth-grade students divided following three conditions, (a) self-explanation and illustration (13 studens), (b) self-explanation only (16 students), and (c) a blank filling test only (13 students). All of the students received six biology lectures on human circulatory system. After receiving a lecture, students who assigned self-explanation conditions were asked to write down self-explanation on the sheet. Furthermore, self-explanation and illustration condition were also asked to draw the flow of the blood on the diagram. All of the students were tested before and after lectures. The results showed that the students who assigned self-explanation and illustration condition were greater gain than other conditions both vocabulary test and comprehension test. The analysis of student's explanations suggests that the illustration prevents students from copying lectures, and sup-ports their understanding.

特集教育研究の現在-教育の統合的理解を目指して-
教育心理学
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