What is self-explanation, and how strong is the evidence for it?

Explaining how a new idea connects to what you already know, or narrating why each step of a solution works — moderate evidence, g = 0.55 in Bisra et al. (2018).

Self-explanation means talking yourself through the reasoning: "this step works because…", "this connects to the idea that…". Bisra and colleagues, in Educational Psychology Review, meta-analyzed 64 reports and found that prompting students to self-explain gave a Hedges' g of 0.55 over not prompting — a moderate, reliable benefit. Dunlosky et al. (2013), the influential review that graded ten study techniques, likewise rated both self-explanation and elaborative interrogation as "moderate utility." Good, evidence-backed tools — not the very strongest (that's retrieval practice and spacing), but well worth using.