Once the high level of student engagement is achieved and students have built their own knowledge either individually or in groups, the next stage is the explanation stage where they share their ideas with the entire class. To elaborate further, during this stage, the students explain their researches from the exploration phase to their classmates. The concepts and ideas during this stage transform from being abstract to concrete. They put their ideas on the paper by using the appropriate keywords. The teacher acts as the mentor during this phase in that he/she probes the student’s thinking by asking guiding questions that allow them to select, from a pool of words, the right words that best explain their ideas.
Feedback is one of the important aspects of this stage. Teachers should provide positive and meaningful feedback to the students, clearly highlighting their areas of strengths and improvements. With this stage, the teacher can arrange experiences, such as classroom presentations, where the students either individually or in groups can present their knowledge to the entire class and the others can listen them. This develops the sense of accountability in the students in that they know that they will be asked to present and show what they have learnt instead of merely gathering information. When they explain things, they look for ways to find the words that elaborate the concept. Arranging only exploration experiences is not enough because that way students will simply copy and paste the ideas from the internet. When they will know that they will have to explain their ideas, they will explore things and construct knowledge accordingly. They learn to share their knowledge with others instead of keeping it confined to themselves or to their groups. The students also develop the skill of patiently listening to one another and respecting each other ideas.
Thus, students built their own experiences and during the explanation phase, they voice those experiences in the best possible way. To sum up,
Students do the following:
1. Explain their ideas and concepts to the others.
2. Use the recorded information, from the exploration phase to support their explanations.
3. Listen to others and ask appropriate questions.
Teachers do the following:
1. Encourage students to voice their experiences by providing guiding questions.
2. Point out the important information to the students by providing keywords.
3. Allowing them to select the right words to explain their ideas and experiences.