Quotes from Ruth Colvin Clark

A self-explanation is an activity on the part of the learner that results in a deliberate and deep review of a worked example.

The best approach to teaching procedural skills is a directive design. Direct instruction includes three core elements: explanations, as summarized in the previous chapter; demonstrations of skills; and student practice with feedback.

A typical direct instructional lesson will include five main components: • pretraining assignments • explanations • worked examples (demonstrations) • structured engagement opportunities • feedback.

Relevant visuals have one of the highest effect sizes of 1.4 for novice learners. In addition, learners like them! Don't shortchange or abuse this important instructional method. Remember to keep visuals simple based on the goal of your explanation. Excluding extraneous or distracting visuals also has a very high effect size of 1.66, so maximize the value of your visuals by keeping them relevant to your learning objective.