The Effects of Expecting to Teach Learned Information on Students' Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

Much of students' learning happens outside of the classroom when they make decisions regarding what and how long to study. These decisions are part of self-regulated learning. Research on self-regulated learning has not yet examined how different evaluation expectations affect students' study decisions. As such, my primary goal was to investigate the impact of expecting to teach versus expecting a test on students' study decisions and actual learning. To do this, I measured changes in self-regulated learning decisions by recording self-paced study latency. Students were randomly assigned to receive instructions that they would take a test on the material or teach the material to someone. Both groups studied a short physics lesson then took a test on the material. Neither group actually taught the material. I found that students who were expected to teach material, compared to students who expected to take a test, studied for twice as long and performed better on the direct recall portion of a final test.