Recommended resources
The freely available resources this lesson will direct you to.
Hello. In the previous lesson, you turned a broad curiosity into a specific, answerable learning question. One possible question was: “How can I check whether a surprising claim in an online article is supported by evidence?” Having a question helps you choose what to study—but not everything you encounter will help in the same way.
This lesson distinguishes three things that often appear together: an explanation, which helps you understand an idea; an example, which shows the idea in a particular case; and a practice exercise, which asks you to use it. Knowing which is which will help you decide whether you have learned an answer or have only seen one illustrated.
What each one does
Imagine you are studying the question about evidence in an article. A useful explanation might say: A claim is supported when the article presents relevant observations or data and makes clear how they bear on the claim. Repeating the claim in different words does not, by itself, support it. This tells you a principle you can use across articles.
An example puts that principle into a particular setting. Suppose an article claims that a study method helped people remember words, then reports what participants did and how many words they later recalled. That report is a possible instance of evidence offered for a claim. It gives you something concrete to inspect; it does not establish, just by appearing in the article, that the study or the article is reliable.
A practice exercise hands some of the work to you. It might present a short article and ask you to identify its claim, locate the observations offered in support, and explain whether those observations are relevant. Unlike the example, the task leaves a judgment for the learner to make.
| If the material mainly… | Its role is… |
|---|---|
| Clarifies a principle or why something works | Explanation |
| Shows the principle in a particular case | Example |
| Asks you to apply an idea or make a judgment | Practice exercise |
These are roles, not necessarily separate pages or fixed stages. An explanation can contain an example. A practice exercise can include a hint. What matters is what a passage is doing at the point where you encounter it.
An example can do more than display an answer
Some examples show not just a finished result but the steps that produced it. These are called worked examples. For your evidence question, a worked example might show someone marking an article’s claim, underlining a reported observation, and then explaining why that observation is—or is not—relevant. You can follow the reasoning before you have to do it independently.
Read the MIT Teaching + Learning Lab’s Worked Examples for a closer look at the difference between studying a demonstrated solution and carrying out a task yourself.
Worked Examples – Teaching + Learning Lab
MIT’s Teaching + Learning Lab describes what a worked example contains and why studying one differs from independent practice.
On the webpage, begin in “What are worked examples?” Read the opening description, ending with the kinds of tasks a worked example can illustrate. In “Why are worked examples more effective for initial skill acquisition than practice?”, skip the physics figure and begin at the paragraph about reducing cognitive load. Read the comparison through the paragraph on moving toward independent practice. Finally, in “3. Worked examples may not prepare students to approach tasks or solve problems independently,” read the opening paragraph. Focus on who performs the steps: the example shows them; practice asks the learner to perform them.
A worked example may contain explanations of its steps. It is still a worked example because you are shown how a particular task is completed. Conversely, merely looking at a completed answer is not the same as practising: you have not yet had to choose the steps yourself.
That distinction suggests a sensible way to study a new skill. First, use an explanation to understand what matters and a worked example to see a possible approach. Then try a task in which the decisions are yours. There is no rule that every subject must be taught in exactly that order, but seeing and doing are different experiences.
The order can change; the roles remain distinct
A teacher might present examples before stating a rule, inviting learners to notice a pattern. Alternatively, the teacher might explain the rule first and then demonstrate it with examples. This short video uses grammar teaching to show both arrangements. You do not need to learn the grammar in it; watch for the difference between being shown instances, being told a principle, and being asked to produce a response.
Inductive vs. Deductive Grammar Teaching | ESL Teaching Tips
Watch “Inductive vs. Deductive Grammar Teaching” from Etacude English Teachers to see that an explanation and an example can appear in either order, while a practice task requires the learner to act.
Near the beginning, watch examples first, where learners inspect sentences to find a pattern, followed by rule first, where the teacher states a principle before showing it in use. Then skip to rule to practice: notice the shift from the teacher’s explanation and examples to tasks learners must complete.
There is a subtlety here. If you inspect examples and are asked to infer the rule, those sentences are examples and the request to infer is a practice task. A page or video need not have only one label. Identify the role of each part rather than trying to classify the whole resource at once.
The same applies to this worksheet about related words. Its introductory text offers a distinction and a model pair; below, the blank lines and drawing spaces ask the learner to supply responses. You do not need to complete the worksheet—the layout illustrates how explanation, example, and practice can share one page.
Use the distinction to find what is missing
Return to the learning question about checking evidence in an article. If you can repeat the principle that “evidence should be relevant” but cannot tell what relevant means in a particular article, another example with its reasoning made visible may help. If you understand an example while someone else walks through it but hesitate when faced with a new article, independent practice may help more. If you can perform a familiar procedure but cannot explain why its steps matter, seek an explanation.
The distinction is not a ranking. Examples are not inferior to explanations, and exercises are not automatically more valuable than reading. Each serves a different need:
- An explanation addresses what or why.
- An example makes an idea visible in a case.
- A practice exercise reveals whether you can use it.
A correct response to one exercise does not prove complete understanding, just as struggling with one exercise does not erase what you have learned. But the attempt provides information that reading alone may not: it shows where you need more support.
Key takeaways
An explanation clarifies an idea, an example demonstrates it in a particular case, and a practice exercise asks you to do some of the thinking or applying yourself. Worked examples can include explanations, and one resource can contain all three roles. To tell them apart, look less at the format and more at who is doing the reasoning.
In the next lesson, you will use a brief self-check to notice a gap in your understanding. The distinction you learned here will make that gap more informative: it can help you tell whether you need a clearer explanation, another example, or a chance to practise.