--- title: "Explain it back in your own words: self-explanation" url: "https://duckyhelper.com/research/principles/explain-it-back/" description: "The self-explanation effect: why students who explain ideas to themselves learn more (Chi et al.), the ICAP framework, and how DuckyHelper asks you to think." updated: "2026-10-09" --- Self-explanation # Explain it back in your own words Students who explain what they read or study to themselves, in their own words, understand it better. Chi and colleagues found good students generate many such explanations, and that simply prompting eighth graders to self-explain a text improved their learning. DuckyHelper asks what you think before it explains and checks your understanding with a question after each step. > “Generating explanations to oneself (self‐explaining) facilitates that integration process” [Chi, M. T. H., De Leeuw, N., Chiu, M.-H., & Lavancher, C. (1994a). Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Understanding. Cognitive Science, 18(3), 439-477.](https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1803_3) From Chi, de Leeuw, Chiu and LaVancher (1994), Cognitive Science. Reproduced for commentary. Source: [Chi, M. T. H., De Leeuw, N., Chiu, M.-H., & Lavancher, C. (1994a). Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Understanding. Cognitive Science, 18(3), 439-477.](https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1803_3). In DuckyHelper ## It asks for your words In the film, the learner's own sentence fills the screen over Chi and colleagues' page. In the app, the tutor keeps handing the explaining back to you: - It asks what you think first (Mac and web) - A check question after each step (Mac and web) - Think out loud, it writes it down (Mac app) - Your turn (Mac and web) ## What the research found Michelene Chi and colleagues listened to students thinking out loud while they studied worked physics examples. The difference between strong and weak students was what they said to themselves: > “Good” students learn with understanding: They generate many explanations (Chi et al., 1989) Then they tested it. Eighth graders read a text about the human circulatory system; one group was asked to explain each line to themselves, the other read it twice. > The prompted group had a greater gain from the pretest to the posttest. (Chi et al., 1994a) The authors' explanation is the line quoted at the top of this page: explaining to yourself is how new information gets joined to what you already know. Chi and Wylie's ICAP framework puts it in one line: learning rises as students move from listening, to doing, to producing their own ideas, to building ideas together with someone. > from passive to active to constructive to interactive, their learning will increase (Chi & Wylie, 2014) Explaining also exposes what we do not know. People think they understand how everyday things work far better than they do, until they try to explain them (Rozenblit and Keil, 2002). ## Feature by feature ### It asks what you think first It starts by asking what you think. Then it gives a hint or a guiding question and lets you take the next step yourself. *Mac and web.* ### A check question after each step After each step of an explanation it asks one question and waits for your answer, so you put the idea in your own words before going on. *Mac and web.* ### Think out loud, it writes it down In the Mac app, talk through your own steps and Ducky writes each one on the shared whiteboard as you say it, checking the math as it goes. If a step goes wrong, it leaves a short note about where to look, not the fix, and you redo just that step. *Mac app.* ### Your turn Eddy's blackboard lessons end by handing the idea back to you with a "your turn". *Mac and web.* Being honest about it DuckyHelper does not yet have a separate "explain it back to me" mode. The behaviour above is what it does today. What this page does not claim These studies tested other people, other schools and other tools. DuckyHelper has not been tested in a study like these, so none of these results are DuckyHelper's results. They are the reasons behind how it teaches. ## The papers on this page ### Self-Explanations: How Students Study and Use Examples in Learning to Solve Problems Chi et al., 1989. Cognitive Science. Students who explain worked examples to themselves learn with real understanding. ### Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Understanding Chi et al., 1994. Cognitive Science. Prompting eighth graders to self-explain deepened their understanding of circulation. ### The ICAP Framework: Linking Cognitive Engagement to Active Learning Outcomes Chi & Wylie, 2014. Educational Psychologist. Learning rises from passive to active to constructive to interactive engagement. ### Understanding Tutor Learning: Knowledge-Building and Knowledge-Telling in Peer Tutors’ Explanations and Questions Roscoe & Chi, 2007. Review of Educational Research. Peer tutors mostly tell knowledge instead of building it with students. ### The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth Rozenblit & Keil, 2002. Cognitive Science. People think they understand how things work much better than they do, until they try to explain it. ### Selective effects of explanation on learning during early childhood Legare & Lombrozo, 2014. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Asking young children to explain a toy helped them learn how it works more than only watching it. ### The structure and function of explanations Lombrozo, 2006. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. A review of how explanations shape learning and generalization by fitting new facts into what we already believe. ### Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan & Willingham, 2013. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. Of ten study techniques, practice testing and spacing were rated most useful. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the self-explanation effect? Students who explain material to themselves while studying, saying why each step works or how an idea connects to what they know, understand it better. Chi et al. (1989) found it in strong students; Chi et al. (1994) showed that prompting students to do it helps. ### What is the ICAP framework? A framework by Chi and Wylie (2014): Interactive, Constructive, Active and Passive engagement. Learning tends to increase as students move from passive to active to constructive to interactive. ### How can I practice self-explanation with DuckyHelper? Tell the tutor what you think before it explains, and answer its check questions in your own words. In the Mac app you can talk through your steps out loud and Ducky writes them on the whiteboard and checks them. ## Sources 1. [Chi, M. T. H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-Explanations: How Students Study and Use Examples in Learning to Solve Problems. Cognitive Science, 13(2), 145-182.](https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1302_1) (accessed 2026-10-09) 2. [Chi, M. T. H., De Leeuw, N., Chiu, M.-H., & Lavancher, C. (1994a). Eliciting Self-Explanations Improves Understanding. Cognitive Science, 18(3), 439-477.](https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1803_3) (accessed 2026-10-09) 3. [Chi, M. T. H., & Wylie, R. (2014). The ICAP Framework: Linking Cognitive Engagement to Active Learning Outcomes. Educational Psychologist, 49(4), 219-243.](https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.965823) (accessed 2026-10-09) 4. [Roscoe, R. D., & Chi, M. T. H. (2007). Understanding Tutor Learning: Knowledge-Building and Knowledge-Telling in Peer Tutors’ Explanations and Questions. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 534-574.](https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307309920) (accessed 2026-10-09) 5. [Rozenblit, L., & Keil, F. (2002). The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth. Cognitive Science, 26(5), 521-562.](https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2605_1) (accessed 2026-10-09) 6. [Legare, C. H., & Lombrozo, T. (2014). Selective effects of explanation on learning during early childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 126, 198-212.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2014.03.001) (accessed 2026-10-09) 7. [Lombrozo, T. (2006). The structure and function of explanations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(10), 464-470.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.08.004) (accessed 2026-10-09) 8. [Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.](https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266) (accessed 2026-10-09) ## Related principles ### Feedback right away, on the step What research says about feedback: why it is powerful, why over a third of feedback studies found it hurt, and how DuckyHelper gives feedback on the step. ### Keep the learner doing, not watching: active learning Active learning in plain words: the 225-study PNAS meta-analysis, why active classes feel like less learning, and how DuckyHelper keeps you doing. ### What the evidence says about AI tutors Randomized trials of AI tutors so far: Harvard physics, Ghana, Nigeria, Tutor CoPilot, and the PNAS study where AI help hurt. What they show, and do not. ## Keep reading ### Quiz, don't re-read: retrieval practice The testing effect: why pulling an idea out of memory beats re-reading it, with the real numbers from Roediger and Karpicke, and how DuckyHelper quizzes you. ### The learning-science library: 100+ papers 100+ real learning-science papers behind DuckyHelper, sorted by principle, each with a citation, a link to the publisher and a one-line summary. ### Ask out loud and hear the answer: press fn on a Mac, or talk to Eddy in the app's Eddy tab Ask DuckyHelper out loud and it answers out loud while it shows you the steps. On your Mac, press fn in any app, or talk to Eddy in its tab. ### Wikipedia, books and science pages in a clean reader; Eddy quotes only what it read, with numbered sources Read Wikipedia, classic books and science pages with Eddy in a clean reader. Eddy quotes only paragraphs it read, with numbered sources, and reads aloud. ## Ready to learn DuckyHelper is ready on your Mac. Learn with Eddy on its blackboard, or with Ducky right on your screen. [Download for Mac](https://duckyhelper.com/download/) [See what it does](https://duckyhelper.com/features/) The Mac app needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. There is no Chromebook, Windows or web version right now.