Self-study followed by discussion enhances learning for high school students

A recent study by Lim and Park (2023) compared specific combinations of learning activities in higher education. They found that self-study followed by discussion led to better retention and transfer outcomes than more conventional approaches, such as starting with a lecture. In this study, we sought to replicate and extend these findings for high school students. Two experimental conditions were compared: discussion preceded by lecture and discussion preceded by self-study. The results showed that the self-study group outperformed the lecture group in both immediate and long-term retention and transfer tests. To gain a better understanding of our findings, we analyzed students’ dialogue during discussion. The results indicated that students in the self-study group engaged in more substantive dialogue compared to those in the lecture group. Furthermore, students in the self-study condition achieved higher post-test scores than those in the lecture condition, and this effect was mediated by the number of substantive comments during discussion. These findings demonstrate that the self-study and discussion model promotes effective learning not only for college students but also for high school students. Thus, this study extends the applicability of this model as a viable alternative to traditional lecture-based approaches.