Going beyond the lesson: Self-generating new factual knowledge in the classroom

•Children self-generated through integration of separate episodes in the classroom.•Self-generation of knowledge predicted academic achievement in reading and math.•Self-generation predicted academic performance above caregiver education level.

For children to build a knowledge base, they must integrate and extend knowledge acquired across separate episodes of new learning. Children’s performance was assessed in a task requiring them to self-generate new factual knowledge from the integration of novel facts presented through separate lessons in the classroom. Whether self-generation performance predicted academic outcomes in reading comprehension and mathematics was also examined. The 278 participating children were in kindergarten through Grade 3 (mean age = 7.7 years, range = 5.5–10.3). Children self-generated new factual knowledge through integration in the classroom; age-related increases were observed. Self-generation performance predicted both reading comprehension and mathematics academic outcomes, even when controlling for caregiver education.