Asking good questions is vital for scientific learning and discovery, but improving this complex skill is a formidable challenge. Here, we show in two experiments (N = 152) that teaching others--"learning-by-teaching"--enhances one's ability to generate higher-order research questions that create new knowledge, relative to two other…

Learning-by-teaching is a generative learning strategy in which students are asked to teach what they are learning to others (Fiorella & Mayer, 2015). In this study, college students watched a multimedia lesson on chemical synaptic transmission with instructions that afterward they would explain the materials by making a lecture video…

Past research has suggested that there may be benefits in learning from expository science text when students study with the expectation that they will need to teach another student. The present experiments were designed to extend prior work by testing whether an effect would be seen on both immediate tests (similar to those used in most prior…

Jigsaw is a peer learning procedure based on the assumption that making "children treat each other as resources" (Aronson & Patnoe, 2011, p. 8) stimulates cooperation among equals. Using a short-term, longitudinal experimental design in 14 sections of an undergraduate human anatomy laboratory, we contrasted this perspective with the…

Previous meta-analyses of the effects of peer tutoring on academic achievement have been plagued with theoretical and methodological flaws. Specifically, these studies have not adopted both fixed and mixed effects models for analyzing the effect size; they have not evaluated the moderating effect of some commonly used parameters, such as comparing…

This article describes an advanced learning technology used to investigate hypotheses about learning by teaching. The proposed technology is an instance of a teachable agent, called SimStudent, that learns skills (e.g., for solving linear equations) from examples and from feedback on performance. SimStudent has been integrated into an online,…

A field experiment in peer tutoring was conducted with college students to test a theoretical model that attached greater desirability to be the tutor than the tutee and to be in an equitable (status congruent) rather than inequitable relationship. Results supported the model. (Author/JKS)

A component analysis of the reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) strategy was performed in a study involving 70 female and 30 male undergraduates. Results support the RPT strategy of pairing students in a reciprocal tutor/tutee relationship. Implications for teaching practice are discussed. (SLD)

The role of assignment rationale on the attitudinal effects of peer tutoring is examined. Tutors had more positive attitudes than tutees when they had been given a competence or physical characteristic rationale but not when the tutors were provided a chance rationale or no rationale. (Author/GK)

In a field experiment among third-grade students, traditional spelling instruction was compared with two different forms of cooperative classroom instruction, one with individual feedback and one with shared feedback. Cooperative methods had positive effects on spelling achievement and on students' effort as rated by their teachers. (Author/JAZ)

A meta-analytic review of group comparison design studies evaluating peer-assisted learning (PAL) interventions with elementary school students produced positive effect sizes (ESs) indicating increases in achievement. PAL interventions were most effective with younger, urban, low-income, and minority students. Interventions that used…

There is considerable concern that the majority of adolescents do not develop the competence in writing they need to be successful in school, the workplace, or their personal lives. A common explanation for why youngsters do not write well is that schools do not do a good job of teaching this complex skill. In an effort to identify effective…

Three studies examined the effects of variations of peer-monitoring procedures on academic performance of college students. It appears that although students can do well with the methods, participation is unlikely without the use of grade contingencies. (Author/MV)

To investigate the order in which the components of the text-lookback strategy are acquired, 100 fifth-grade students were asked to tutor younger readers. The order of acquisition was as follows: undifferentiated rereading, text sampling, question differentiation, and text manipulation. (Author/BW)

Two studies assessed the effects of a peer-monitoring procedure on student performance in a college course. Both studies indicated the superiority of the peer-monitoring method over the typical individual performance contingency. (Author/MV)