
Explaining something to someone else often requires the explainer to
think about and present the material in new ways such as: relating it to the
other’s knowledge or experience, translating it into terms familiar to the
other, or generating new examples. Thus, explaining expands understanding
for the individual doing the explaining because it forces the explainer to
clarify concepts and generally reorganize knowledge structures (Chi &
VanLehn, 1991; Chi, et al., 1994; Vygotsky, 1978; Webb, 1989; Webb &
Farivar, 1994).