Explaining Out Loud: How Production Medium and Prompts Shape Cognitive Processes and Comprehension

Background:Non-interactive learning by explaining can foster comprehension, but meta-analytic evidence indicates considerable variability in its effectiveness. A central assumption is that explaining supports learning only when it elicits productive cognitive processes. Two potentially important task characteristics are instructional support and production medium, yet their roles remain insufficiently understood.Aims:This study examined how prompts and production medium, oral versus written, jointly influence learning outcomes in non-interactive learning by explaining. We further investigated whether cognitive processes reflected in students’ explanations mediated these effects.Sample:Participants were 156 German secondary school students (Mage = 17.60, SD = 0.70).Methods:Students watched a 25-minute lecture on cognitive load theory and were randomly assigned either to produce an oral or written explanation to a fictitious peer, with or without prompts, or to a restudy condition. Cognitive processes reflected in the explanations were assessed using holistic ratings. Comprehension was measured one day and seven days later. Results:Students who generated oral explanations showed better comprehension one day and seven days after learning than students who generated written explanations. This advantage was linked to cognitive processes reflected in students’ explanations: oral explanations showed greater engagement in cognitive processes, which in turn was associated with better comprehension. Prompts were not significantly associated with cognitive processes or comprehension. Conclusions:These findings highlight production medium as an important task condition in non-interactive learning by explaining. For secondary school learners, oral explaining may support comprehension by facilitating more extensive and cognitively productive explanation generation.