Identifying secondary-school students’ difficulties when reading visual representations displayed in physics simulations

López, Víctor; Pintó, Roser

doi:10.1080/09500693.2017.1332441

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…The primary selection criteria were of students that represented the extreme high and low spatial abilities based on their scores on SRI test. We then tried to balance the interviewed students in terms of high/low spatial scores, gender, treatment/control, and the criterion of being talkative (López and Pintó 2017 ). After the treatment, both groups took the plate tectonics content posttest that was identical to the pretest.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus on the notice: evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation

Epler-Ruths¹,

McDonald

Pallant

et al. 2020

Cogn. Research

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This article represents the findings from the qualitative portion of a mixed methods study that investigated the impact of middle school students’ spatial skills on their plate tectonics learning while using a computer visualization. Higher spatial skills have been linked to higher STEM achievement, while use of computer visualizations has mixed results for helping various students with different spatial levels. This study endeavors to better understand the difference between what high and low spatial-skilled middle school students notice and interpret while using a plate tectonic computer visualization. Also, we examine the differences in the quantity and quality of students’ spatial language. The collected data include student spatial scores, student interviews, screencasts, and online artifacts. The artifacts were students’ answers to questions inserted in an online curriculum (GEODE) with the embedded computer visualization (Seismic Explorer). Students were asked what they “noticed” during interviews and in the curriculum. Typed student answers and interviews were analyzed for types and quantity of spatial words. Analysis of typed answers and interviews indicated that there are differences in the number and types of spatial words used by high or low spatial students. Additionally, high spatial learners talk about depth, notice patterns in data and are more likely to make a hypothesis to explain what they see on the screen. Findings suggest that students go through an iterative cycle of noticing and interpreting when using a scientific model. Overall, results show a significant positive relationship between spatial skills and what students notice while learning plate tectonics. An explanation for the increased gain in plate tectonics comprehension is that students with higher spatial skills notice more, so they are able to interpret more details of the model. This finding implies that students with low spatial skills do not benefit as much from use of a computer visualization and will need more scaffolding in order to interpret details in the computer visualization.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus on the notice: evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation

Epler-Ruths¹,

McDonald

Pallant

et al. 2020

Cogn. Research

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show abstract

“…VR seemed to facilitate the visualisation process by enabling visitors to picture and experience abstract concepts such as black holes or the scale of the solar system. This visual experience, in turn, resulted in enhanced engagement and possibly in enhanced learning as well (López & Pintó, 2017;Smetana & Bell, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A core aspect of technology-mediated education is the underlying idea that visualisations are powerful tools for science learning (López & Pintó, 2017;Smetana & Bell, 2012). However, there is a broad spectrum of potential advantages of using VR beyond merely providing new visualisation opportunities (Smetana & Bell, 2012).…”

Section: The Potential Of Virtual Reality In Science Education and Pumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(4) Fourth, we considered engagement though the aspect of visualisation. Since science often deals with the unobservable, visualisations available through VR are particularly valuable in scientific domains where concepts are difficult or impossible to perceive directly (Bakas & Mikropoulos, 2003;Brinson, 2015;Kersting, 2020;López & Pintó, 2017;Smetana & Bell, 2012). Scientific entities are sometimes too small, such as atoms and DNA molecules; or too big, such as stars and galaxies; they unfold over timescales that are hard to grasp, such as chemical reactions or evolutionary processes; or they are not directly observable in the physical environment, such as the Earth's axis and orbit around the Sun or gravity as the curvature of spacetime (López & Pintó, 2017;Pande & Chandrasekharan, 2017;Steier & Kersting, 2019;Sullivan et al, 2017).…”

Section: A Conceptual Framework For Engagement With Virtual Reality Amentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring participant engagement during an astrophysics virtual reality experience at a science festival

Kersting

Steier²,

Venville

2020

International Journal of Science Education, Part B

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“…The information about the random movement of the particles the teacher clearly saw may be completely imperceptible to the students. Instead, they may perceive a trivial aspect of the animation, like a colour change of some particles to be the main take-home message (López & Pintó, 2017). General claims are not relevant: outcomes depend on the students, content, context and learning objectives (Lowe et al, 2011).…”

Section: Learning From Visual Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making science come alive : Student-generated stop-motion animations in science education

Orraryd

2021

Studies in Science and Technology Education

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The availability of digital technology in classrooms does not only increase the possibility for teachers to present content in new visual and dynamic ways. This technology also offers students the opportunity to become cocreators of content in science classrooms. The dissertation explores, mainly through qualitative methods, the potential of student generated stop-motion animations in science education research and practice. This exploration is motivated by the challenges learners experience when they are introduced to abstract dynamic science concepts spanning several organisational levels in space and time. In addition, it emphasises the importance of multiple representations for communicating and reasoning about such concepts. This novel approach is used, in combination with a conceptual characterisation of students' written explanations, to expand the knowledge about students' conceptions of evolution by natural selection. The potential of a stop-motion approach to stimulate meaning making of evolution biology and redox-chemistry classrooms is also explored. The thesis consists of four studies and a comprehensive summary with an extended analysis and discussion of the results.

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Identifying secondary-school students’ difficulties when reading visual representations displayed in physics simulations

Cited by 31 publications

References 50 publications

Focus on the notice: evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation

Focus on the notice: evidence of spatial skills’ effect on middle school learning from a computer simulation

Exploring participant engagement during an astrophysics virtual reality experience at a science festival

Making science come alive : Student-generated stop-motion animations in science education

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