Purposes of Explanations/Document
Purposes of explanation
Explanations vary according to their purpose. Categorising the main purposes can help you plan effective explanations. We can categorise the purposes of explanations in the following ways to help pupils understand
- purposes and objectives of the lessons;
- processes, procedures and skills (explaining how);
- cause and effect (explaining why);
- relationships (how one factor affects another over time);
- concepts (often abstract);
- attitudes and values (involving some personal judgement).
Purposes and objectives of the lessons
It is often important to explain why things are done and what pupils are expected to achieve. These are lesson objectives and learning outcomes, and it is important to separate the two.
For example, at the beginning of a lesson it might be appropriate to say: Music ‘Today we are looking at different musical styles. The reason for this is that later you will use one in your own composition to reflect a particular emotion. What I am looking for in your composition is a clear style being used to reflect melancholy and a clear explanation of why you have chosen that style.’
Mathematics ‘We are learning to interpret the shape of graphs. The reason for this is that later you will be asked to predict the shape of a graph that you expect to get when water cools to form ice.
For top marks you will produce a sketch graph with clearly labelled axes, and be able to explain in the form of a hypothesis why you think the shape should be as it is.’
For further information see unit 1 Structuring learning (available here on the Wiki).
Processes, procedures and skills (explaining how) Performing a skill requires following a set procedure. The purpose of explaining a process or procedure is to help pupils understand how things happen or work. The emphasis is on sequence and connectives such as first, next, then and finally are important. Examples could include how to play a forehand stroke in tennis, how to play an Indian rhythm in music or how to carry out an investigation using the Internet. For complex procedures, where decisions are involved at various stages, this type of explanation could be linked with modelling. Here the teacher not only demonstrates and explains what to do but also talks out loud about the decisions that have to be made (see also unit 6 Modelling).
In geography you might explain the components and links in the water cycle with the aid of a diagram and structure your explanation in the following way: ‘First water from the sea is evaporated by heat from the Sun, then the vapour condenses to form clouds, next …’, and so on.
Cause and effect (explaining why) These types of explanation are characterised by one thing leading to another in a causal sequence. The connective because is important here. It often starts with something that is observable and then seeks to explain this in terms of a number of possible causes, carefully considering evidence to support one possible cause or another. It is more difficult to explain events that are the result of a combination of factors, such as the outbreak of a war, the origins of an artistic movement or the causes of global warming. Diagrams such as consequence maps or concept maps can help these explanations, as can models and analogies. Interspersing the explanation with questions can also be beneficial.
Relationships (how one factor affects another over time) When explaining relationships between factors we need to consider how one factor affects another, and also how one might relate to the other in terms of time. Explaining timelines for each event with diagrams may help. In other circumstances language such as: as the … so the … will help.
When explaining relationships in graphs we might say:
- ‘You can see from the graph (pointing out relevant features) as the temperature increases so the rate of dissolving increases.’
- ‘You will see that we can infer from the graph [pointing out relevant features] that as time has gone on so air travel has increased and sea travel has decreased.’
- ‘The relationship between climate change and human activity is quite complex. First let us analyse what was happening between 1800 and 2000. Next let us analyse what scientists have found out about temperature in parts of the world between these times and then compare the two.’
Concepts (often abstract) Concepts are defined as ideas or notions. These ideas or notions have common features that are recognisable, such as mammal or monarchy. Concepts can be subdivided into those that are concrete, that is observable and tangible, and those that are abstract. The table below illustrates this.
| Concrete | Abstract | |
| Familiar | Terms in everyday use and observable: e.g. wave (sea), trench, reptile, metal, paragraph | Terms in everyday use but not easily observable: e.g. design, democracy, health, flow (in dance), pace (in writing), erosion |
| Not familiar (often technical) | Terms used by specialists but observable: e.g. thermosetting plastic, gradient, ellipsis (in writing) | Terms used by specialists but not observable: e.g. urbanisation, atom, choreography, irony (in literature) |
At Key Stages 3 and 4 there is a significant increase in the interaction with abstract ideas and these need particular attention. Using models and analogies supports pupils’ visualisation of the concept. Examples include using layers of modelling clay to represent layers in a sedimentary rock, using long balloons to represent the guard cells around a stomata, and using a diagram of a school hierarchy to help understand the political and social hierarchy of a particular Shakespeare play.
Attitudes and values (involving some personal judgement) In explaining an attitude or value the issue of judgement is important. This is often about opinion and is different from fact. These types of explanation, about people’s values or attitudes, should feature the notion of opinion with justification, that is relating to some form of evidence. For instance when explaining the attitude of society towards the environment you might say:
‘It is many people’s opinion that we should not use green-field sites for new affordable housing because many think that there are sufficient brown-field sites to build 1- or 2-bedroom homes. Others think that … As a counter-argument some people think that …’
Purposes for explanations 20 minutes Think about your own subject. Reflect on the lessons that you taught last week or will teach this week. What were the purposes of the explanations you provided? Complete the tally chart below to provide a picture of the explanations that you use in your subject across each key stage.
| Type of explanation | KS3 lessons | KS4 lessons |
| Purposes and objectives of the lesson | ||
| Processes, procedures and skills (explaining how) | ||
| Cause and effect (explaining why) | ||
| Relationships (how one factor affects another over time) | ||
| Concepts (often abstract) | ||
| Attitudes and values (involving some personal judgement) |
| Reflection |
You will probably find that the nature of explanation you use changes over the age range.
Discuss with a colleague your range of purposes for explanations and whether they think you should be using more or fewer of a particular type |
