When knowledge isn\u27t power: The influence of prior knowledge on question generation training

Is it possible to teach a learner to become a better question asker in as little as 25 minutes? Questions are believed to play a crucial role in a variety of cognitive faculties, including comprehension and reasoning. Available research suggests that learning how to ask good questions should be taught at an early age but all ages benefit from question generation training. Sadly, consistent with the research coming out of self-regulation, it is well documented that the ideal scenario of a curious question asker does not match reality. Students are unspectacular at monitoring their own knowledge deficits and their question generation is both infrequent and unsophisticated. Given that many teachers and school districts do not have the resources to provide individualized question training to students, the current study sought to explore the benefits of using animated pedagogical agents toteach question asking skills in a relatively short amount of time (approximately 25 minutes). Results revealed a significant difference in the quality of questions generated on the posttest as a function of condition. Additionally, results revealed a significant interaction between prior knowledge and question training on the posttest scores