The effects of question-generation training on metacognitive knowledge, self regulation and learning approaches in science.

BACKGROUND Although much research has examined the impact of question generation on students' reading comprehension and learning from lectures, far less research has analysed its influence on how students learn and study science. The present study aims to bridge this knowledge gap. METHOD Using a quasi-experimental design, three complete ninth-grade science classes, with a total of 72 students, were randomly assigned to three conditions (groups): (G1) questioning-training by providing prompts; (G2) question-generation without any explicit instruction; and (G3) no question control. Participants' pre-test and post-test self-reported measures of metacognitive knowledge, self-regulation and learning approaches were collected and data analysed with multivariate and univariate analyses of covariance. RESULTS (a) MANCOVA revealed a significant effect for group; (b) ANCOVAs showed the highest average gains for G1 and statistically significant between-group differences in the two components of metacognition: metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation; and (c) the direction of these differences seemed to vary in each of these components. CONCLUSIONS Question-generation training influenced how students learned and studied, specifically their metacognition, and it had a medium to large effect size, which was somewhat related to the prompts used.