She placed a transparency on the overhead that summarized what they
had discovered about good explanations: Good explanations (1)
describe the phenomenon, (2) lay out the elements of the process, and
(3) describe the process clearly.
Claudia then asked her students to look over the textbook explanations
and think about two questions: (1) What are they missing? and (2)
Where is there room for improvement? After a few minutes, Claudia
asked students to share their ideas:
· “Well, they’re pretty boring.”
· “Sometimes they try to cram too much information in.”
· “They can be hard to follow.”
· “They don’t have any—you know—style, flair.”