Learning through verbalization (1): Understanding the concept of probability

Schematizing experiences plays a critical role in learning. Verbalizing experiences at a proper abstraction level has been identified as important for effective schematization (Shirouzu et al., 2002), or learning (Chi et al., 1989), but its details need to be studied further. For instance, in a statistics class, a dramatic demonstration can help students grasp basic concepts like the law of large numbers. Though the students remember them well, what they could verbalize differs depending on the class activities and has different effects on learning. We report here that the students asked to verbalize a demo one hour after could express the important aspects of the event 18% more than their counterparts who did the same twelve weeks later.