engleski

Role of representations on students' answers to conceptual questions

Previous studies have shown that students’ problem-solving performance depends on problem representation. Student strategies in problem solving often vary with representation, topic, and student prior knowledge. In this study, we used conceptual questions in different physics topics that students had covered during their physics classes in high school. We designed isomorphic questions using three different representations (graphical, pictorial, and verbal). The aim of the study was to investigate if representation affects student responses, i.e., if students are consistent in their answers across different representations. We measured students’ eye movements to get an insight into how demanding is to extract information from different representations. Our preliminary results suggested that students’ overall performance was rather similar for graphical, pictorial, and verbal representations. However, students did not always choose consistent answers across different representations. Eye-tracking data showed that students had the longest dwell time and average fixation duration for pictorial representation, thus suggesting that pictorial representation was most demanding for students to obtain relevant information. Although dwell time was similar for graphical and verbal representations, a longer average fixation duration for graphical representation indicated that it was more difficult to extract information from graphs than verbal statements. This additional information provided by eye-tracking data could be useful in exploring the effects of different representations on students’ problem solving.

physics education ; eye tracking ; multiple representations

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