Peeking into students’ mental imagery: the Report Aloud technique in Science Education research

Abstract

The goal of this article is to present a qualitative methodological proposal for researching Science teaching. We produced the article based on premises of the Think-Aloud method and Depictive Gesture Analysis. Here, we report on the structuring of the Think-Aloud technique, a novelty within the scope of research in education and applications in the teaching of Chemistry and Physics. The main advantages of this approach is its potential to establish a link between verbal and body language, which is produced by the participants during data production through the dialogues proposed within this research. Therefore, the procedures in the study allow for a more accurate analysis because of the pieces of evidence obtained from speaking, writing, and the gestures for the identification of mental images formed by the students about the scientific concepts they have studied.

Computer simulations for the teaching of photoelectric effect

“…The interviews were filmed so that it was possible to use verbal and non-verbal (gestural) cues for the assessment. The students answered the interview using the Report-Aloud technique developed by our research group (Trevisan, Serrano, Wolff, & Ramos, 2019). The Report Aloud conducted an interview based on questions from a data production instrument, answered by the research subject while "thinking out loud".This technique consists of combining the student's non-verbal report of mental images with his verbal reasoning when answering a question asked in a previous and a posterior test (pre or post).…”

Visualising relativity: assessing high school students’ understanding of complex physics concepts through AI-generated images

“…After the end of the course, all students were interviewed individually through the Report Aloud protocol [15]. Using this protocol, a constant dialogue between the interviewer and interviewee was developed, where the students described what they were thinking at the time they performed some task.…”

Uncovering the origins of mental images about the concept of light: the difference between novice and expert mediation levels profile

“…The interviews were semi-structured and conducted individually with each participant, focusing on his/her posttest questions' answers. The interviews were conducted according to the Report Aloud protocol (Trevisan, 2019), adapted from the Think Aloud technique ( Van-Someren, Barnard, & Sandberg, 1994). The most striking difference between both methods is that in the former the interview is made after the students answer the posttest, without interventions.…”