The Effect of Explaining Another's Actions on Children's Implicit Theories of Balance

Children and adults often hold naive intuitive theories about how the physical world around them works, and their misconceptions can be difficult to change. Self-explanations have been found to be effective in producing better understanding of science (Chi, de Leeuw, Chiu, the rest observed the model and were also encouraged to produce verbal explanations of what they saw. At posttest, a significantly higher number of children from the latter condition had improved their understanding of balance. The positive effects of interpersonal explanation are discussed in relation to Karmiloff-Smith's model of children's development, and the implications for teaching are highlighted.