Beyond the use of an explanatory key accompanying submicroscopic representations

Ferk Savec, Vesna (author), Hrast, Špela (author), Devetak, Iztok (author), Torkar, Gregor (author)

When learning chemistry, students encounter various visualizations introducing scientific concepts and processes unobservable to the naked eye. It is often assumed that these visualizations support students’ understanding and enable them to solve problems more efficiently. The research presented here investigates students’ use of an explanatory key while solving tasks based on submicroscopic representations. The following features of the explanatory key were examined: 1) colored versus black-and-white, and 2) pictorial versus textual. Eye-fixation patterns and students’ verbal explanations indicated that the presence of color in the key does not influence students’ task solving. However, significant differences were observed with regard to a textual versus pictorial key used in the tasks: students spent more time and fixated more frequently on the key while solving tasks using a textual key in comparison to a pictorial key. The results indicate that the type of explanatory key might play an important role in revealing students’ representational competence with regard to submicroscopic representations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: representational competence, submicroscopic representations, learning chemistry, explanatory key, eye tracking
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2016
• Number of pages: Str. 864-873
• Numbering: Vol. 63, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-87731
• UDC: 37.091.3:54
• ISSN on article: 1318-0207
• DOI: 10.17344/acsi.2016.2835
• COBISS.SI-ID: 11383113

Copyright

Podatek o licenci CC BY je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 11. 8. 2025)

• Publication date in RUL: 31.08.2017

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Acta chimica slovenica
• Shortened title: Acta chim. slov.
• Publisher: Slovensko kemijsko društvo = Slovenian Chemical Society
• ISSN: 1318-0207
• COBISS.SI-ID: 14086149

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Pri učenju kemije se učenci, dijaki in študenti srečujejo z različnimi vizualizacijskimi gradniki, ki ponazarjajo delčno raven naravoslovnih pojmov in procesov. Pri tem se pogosto privzame, da so ti vizualizacijski gradniki učečim v podporo pri razumevanju in da so jih sposobni učinkovito uporabiti pri reševanju nalog in problemov. Name raziskave je bil preučiti uporabo legende med reševanjem nalog, ki temeljijo na submikroskopskih reprezentacijah. Preučevane so bile naslednje lastnosti legende: (1) barvna napram črno-bela, in (2) slikovna napram besedilna. Vzorci očesnih fiksacij in ustne razlage študentov so pokazali, da uporaba barvne legende v primerjavi s črno-belo ne vpliva na število in čas fiksacij pogleda študentov na legendo med reševanjem nalog. Ugotovljene pa so bile pomembne razlike povezane z uporabo slikovne napram besedilni legendi; tako študenti namenijo več časa in pogosteje fiksirajo pogled na besedilno legendo v primerjavi s slikovno. Rezultati kažejo, da ima lahko način vključitve in vrsta uporabljene legende pomembno vlogo pri razvijanju razumevanja reprezentacijske kompetence učečih v zvezi z submikroskopskimi reprezentacijami.

• Keywords: vizualizacijski gradniki, reševanje nalog, legende