The pedagogical potential of drawing and writing in a primary science multimodal unit

Wilson, Rachel; Bradbury, Leslie

doi:10.1080/09500693.2016.1255369

Cited by 32 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The written explanations were particularly important to understand students' ideas of the functions of the substances transferred. This is in line with the results of Wilson and Bradbury () who made the same observation that functions are more visible in written explanations than in drawings.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…In the discussion, the authors point out that it would be helpful to encourage students to make written notes in addition to mere drawings, to make analyses easier (Schussler & Winslow, 2007). This is also a recommendation of Wilson and Bradbury (2016), who showed the potential of combined written and drawn representations for evaluating students' thinking. Combining writing and drawing allows students to include their meaning to their own drawings, which is important to grasp students' conceptions (Ehrlén, 2009).…”

Section: Task N°1: "Open Description Of Plant Reproduction"mentioning

confidence: 84%

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Understanding students' conceptions of plant reproduction to better teach plant biology in schools

Lampert

Scheuch

Pany

et al. 2019

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact Statement It is critical that people understand the importance of plants to all life on Earth, and this must be taught in an understandable and engaging way at an early age. Plant reproduction provides useful real‐life examples for teaching students about the biology of plants. However, what do students actually know about this process? We asked students to complete one of three writing tasks to ascertain their understanding of plant reproduction. Their responses provide useful insight into their conceptions of plant reproduction. Ultimately, better knowledge of students' conceptions of topics like plant reproduction can provide educators with important insights to help guide and improve teaching of plant biology in schools. Summary Teaching botany is a challenge due to the phenomenon of “plant blindness” and students' general lack of interest in plants. The reproduction of flowering plants can serve as a useful topic for teaching botany by providing a real‐life context to aid learning. However, research has shown that students have difficulties in understanding how the stages of plant reproduction are connected. This study aims to examine students' conceptions of the processes of plant reproduction. Students' conceptions were analyzed in a multi‐method approach. A total of 724 students from fifth to 12th grade (aged 10–18 years) were assessed using three different types of writing and drawing tasks. Students' conceptions were analyzed in a qualitative content analysis. Results show that students struggle to differentiate between pollination and seed dispersal. Moreover, students have better knowledge about the function of seeds than about the function of pollen. Students are most familiar with seed dispersal by wind and pollination by bees. Better knowledge of students' conceptions can greatly aid teaching. Students' awareness of the function of seeds can be used as a starting point for teaching plant reproduction. The writing and drawing tasks of the study can be used in class to assess students' conceptions in an easy way to make conceptions and their development visible to both students and teachers. Knowledge about students' conceptions of plant reproduction can serve as a basis for deeper understanding and improve how plant biology is taught in schools.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Task N°1: "Open Description Of Plant Reproduction"mentioning

confidence: 84%

Understanding students' conceptions of plant reproduction to better teach plant biology in schools

Lampert

Scheuch

Pany

et al. 2019

Plants People Planet

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The results show that most of the generated drawings were original in nature, revealing different features of the dynamics of the leukocyte cascade. Finally, it has been found that a multimodal teaching sequence, which included field observations, viewing of photographs and videos, and drawing as a communication tool, was effective in increasing students' knowledge about carnivore plant structure and function [100].…”

Section: Student-generated Visual Representations and Learning In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Galano

Colantonio

Leccia³

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Astronomy Education Research.] Several decades of research have contributed to our understanding of students' reasoning about astronomical phenomena. Some authors have pointed out the difficulty in reading and interpreting images used in school textbooks as factors that may justify the persistence of misconceptions. However, only a few studies have investigated to what extent usual textbook images influence students' understanding of such phenomena. This study examines this issue, exploring 13-14 year old students' explanations, drawings, and conceptions about three familiar phenomena: change of seasons, Moon phases, and solar or lunar eclipses. The research questions that guided the study were (RQ1) how are students' explanations and visual representations about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? (RQ2) How are students' conceptions about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? (RQ3) Which features of the used images most affected the students' visual representations and explanations of familiar astronomical phenomena? To answer our research questions, we designed three instructional contexts under increasing support conditions: textbook images and text, teaching booklets with specially designed images and text, only text. To analyze students' drawings, we used exploratory factor analysis to deconstruct drawings into their most salient elements. To analyze students' explanations, we adopted a constant comparison method identifying different levels of increasing knowledge. To investigate students' conceptions, we used a mixed multiple-choice and true false baseline questionnaire. For RQ1, results show that the specially designed images condition was effective in helping students producing informed drawings in comparison to text-only condition for all phenomena, and more effective than textbook images condition when one considers seasonal change drawings. Concerning RQ2, the specially designed images condition was the most effective for all phenomena. Concerning RQ3, prevalent elements of astronomy images that affected students' explanations and visual representations were Earth's elliptical orbit; the position of the Sun with respect to the Moon orbit; and Sun, Moon, and Earth alignment. Our findings confirm concerns about textbook astronomy images, whose features may interfere with the identification of the relevant factors underlying the phenomena. Moreover, findings of this study suggest that affordances of the specially designed images may play an essential role in scaffolding meaningful understanding of the targeted phenomena. Implications for teaching through and learning from visual representations in astronomy education are briefly discussed.

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“…There is increasing evidence that the use of drawings can support students' understanding of science and their learning (Wilson & Bradbury, 2016). Pictorial representations could help students in schematising subject matter elements as well as in reproducing them correctly (cf.…”

Section: Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memorisation methods in science education: tactics to improve the teaching and learning practice

Pals

Tolboom²,

Suhre³

et al. 2017

International Journal of Science Education

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How can science teachers support students in developing an appropriate declarative knowledge base for solving problems? This article focuses on the question whether the development of students' memory of scientific propositions is better served by writing propositions down on paper or by making drawings of propositions either by silent or muttering rehearsal. By means of a memorisation experiment with eighth-and ninth-grade students, we answer this question. In this experiment, students received instruction to memorise nine science propositions and to reproduce them afterwards. To support memorisation students were randomly assigned either to a group that received instruction to write each proposition on paper or to a group that received instruction to make a drawing about the content of the proposition. In addition, half of the students in both groups received instruction to mutter and the other half of them received instruction to write or draw in silence. The main conclusion from the experiment is that after four weeks students who had made a drawing remembered significantly more propositions than those who had memorised the propositions by writing them down. Our research further revealed that it did not matter whether students muttered or memorised silently.

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The pedagogical potential of drawing and writing in a primary science multimodal unit

Cited by 32 publications

References 48 publications

Understanding students' conceptions of plant reproduction to better teach plant biology in schools

Understanding students' conceptions of plant reproduction to better teach plant biology in schools

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Memorisation methods in science education: tactics to improve the teaching and learning practice

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