Self-Questioning Instructional Research: A Review

Studies in self-questioning designed to improve students’ prose processing are reviewed in the context of theoretical issues and instructional implications that stem from three theoretical perspectives: the active processing perspective, metacognitive theory, and schema theory. The review indicates that the effects of self-questioning training on students’ prose processing are successful. Moreover, it indicates the need to consider the issue of constraints in self-questioning. The constraints of content knowledge and metacognitive deficiencies on self-questioning are illustrated. Subsequently, methodological problems underlying instructional failures in self-questioning research are examined. These include level of criterion in training, processing time allowed the subjects, explicitness in instruction, and maintenance and transfer tests. Last, potential directions of future research are discussed.