To process the information at another level, the student must assume the role of teacher. Again, the point is not so much that a student attempts to answer questions or clarify information, it is that all the students attempt to answer questions and clarify information. In this process the accuracy of answers and factual information are ultimately rooted in the collective self-correcting nature of the process itself. It should also not be overlooked that when students are engaged in answering each others questions, they are, in fact, engaged and engagement is the first step toward critical thinking and away from the passiveness that characterizes learning dependency. Engagement, in this case, is not the result of an artificial and contrived attempt to get students to do critical thinking as much as it is the desirable outcome of removing the temptation to ask the expert.
Presumptuous clarity serves only to paralyze thought.
In a world replete with certainties, which presuppose a definite basis, there are reasonable alternative explanations for those same acknowledged certainties. If scientific researchers only rarely can make a definite statement in unequivocal terms about the implications of their findings, educators are no less responsible to the same standard. SI is a departure from traditional forms of remedial academic assistance. In SI, academic skills are developed within the framework of regular core curriculum courses. Supporters of SI contend that study skills are more easily developed when they are not taught in isolation from course content.