Fostering Active Knowledge Building in Learning by Teaching

Logan Fiorella

Learning by teaching involves constructing a deeper understanding of the learning material through explaining it to others. Although explaining to others is generally effective, many students struggle to engage in knowledge building, in which they actively monitor their understanding and generate inferences. This project will investigate how asking students to explain drawingsââ?¬â?either generated by the learner or provided by the instructorââ?¬â?affect specific knowledge building processes. In the project, undergraduates will ââ?¬Ë?teachââ?¬â?¢ biology concepts by recording a video lecture for a fictitious peer. We will examine how the availability of learner-generated and instructor-provided drawings influence verbal explanation quality, subsequent restudy behavior, and long-term understanding. Overall, the goal of this research is identify specific conditions under which learning by teaching is most effective at fostering learning and self-regulation.

About Logan Fiorella

Dr. Logan Fiorella is Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research explores the cognitive science of student learning and its implications for instruction. One area focuses on how students learn from ?generative? learning activities like learning by explaining and learning by drawing. A second area focuses on applying principles of cognition to the design effective multimedia learning environments, including games, simulations, and instructional videos. Dr. Fiorella received the 2020 Richard E. Snow Award for Early Contributions in Educational Psychology from Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, and the 2019 Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award from Division C of the American Educational Research Association.