• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.191-199
• /
• 2006

This study investigated the influence of time to draw students' mental models and students' field dependence-independence on learning the particulate nature of matter with multiple representations. Seventh graders (N=295) at two middle schools were assigned to control, after-drawing, and before-drawing groups. The students learned "Boyle's Law" and "Charles's Law" for two class periods. Results revealed that the scores of a test on conceptual understanding for the two drawing groups were significantly higher than those for the control group. However, there was no significant interaction between the instruction and students' field dependence-independence in the scores of the test on conceptual understanding. In 'novelty' on a situational interest test, field independent students in the two drawing groups scored significantly higher than those in the control group. The scores for field independent students in each group were similar, while field dependent students in the before-drawing group scored lower than those in the control and after-drawing groups in 'attention demand' on the situational interest test. It was found that most students positively perceived after-drawing or before-drawing, but field independent students in the before-drawing group were more apprehensive about the activities than those in the after-drawing group.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.156-167
• /
• 2009

This study investigated the effects of dynamic visual on students' field independence-dependence on connecting errors and conceptual understanding in learning chemistry concepts with multiple representations. Seventh graders (N=123) at a co-ed middle school were assigned to a static visual (SV) group learning with text and static visual, and a dynamic visual (DV) group learning with text and dynamic visual. The students then learned 'Boyle's Law' and 'Charles's Law' for two class periods. Results revealed that the percentages of the DV group were lower than those of the SV group on connecting errors. However, the percentages of the students' connecting errors were still high regardless of their field independence-dependence. There was a little different tendency in the percentages of connecting errors between the two groups by students' field independence-dependence according to the types of connecting errors. The scores of the DV group were significantly higher than those of the SV group in a test on conceptual understanding. However, there was no significant interaction between the instruction and the students' field independence-dependence. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.28-36
• /
• 2007

This study investigated the influences of small group discussion and students' visual learning style in learning chemical concepts with drawing and writing as methods to assist students in connecting and integrating multiple external representations. Seventh graders (N=449) at a coed middle school were assigned to individual drawing (ID), pair drawing (PD), individual writing (IW), and pair writing (PW) groups. All students learned "Boyle's Law" and "Charles's Law" for two class periods. Analyses of the results revealed that the students in the PD group, regardless of students' visual learning style, scored significantly higher than those in the ID group in a conception test. The scores of the students with strong visual learning preference in the PW group were significantly higher than those in the IW group in the conception test, while the scores of the students with weak visual learning preference were not significantly different between the two groups. Although the conception test scores of the PD group were higher than those of the PW group, the difference was relatively small. It was found that most students in both PD and PW groups perceived pair drawing and pair writing positively upon cognitive and motivational aspects.