Can generating representations enhance learning with dynamic visualizations?

This study explores the impact of asking middle school students to generate drawings of their ideas about chemical reactions on integrated understanding. Students explored atomic interactions during hydrogen combustion using a dynamic visualization. The generation group drew their ideas about how the reaction takes place at the molecular level. The interaction group conducted multiple experiments with the visualization by varying the amount of energy provided to ignite the reaction. The generation group integrated more ideas about chemical reactions and made more precise interpretations of the visualization than the interaction group. Embedded assessments show that generation motivated students to interpret the visualization carefully and led to more productive explanations about ideas represented in the dynamic visualization. In contrast, the interaction group was less successful in linking the visualization to underlying concepts and observable phenomena and wrote less detailed explanations. The study suggests that drawing is a promising way to help students interpret complex visualizations and integrate information. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 1177–1198, 2011     

Parents’ Perceptions of Preschool Activities: Exploring Outdoor Play

Research Findings: Outdoor play is important for children’s health and development, yet many preschool-age children in child care settings do not receive the recommended 60 min/day of outdoor play. Child care providers have previously described parent-related barriers to increasing outdoor playtime, including parents not providing appropriate clothing for their children and parents’ preference for academics over active play. This study explored parent perceptions and knowledge of outdoor playtime in child care environments. On average, parents reported wanting their child to spend significantly more time playing outside during a full day of child care than the recommended minimum. However, more than half of parents reported that they did not know how much time their child actually spent playing outside, and 43% reported that they did not know their child care center’s outdoor play policies. Practice or Policy: Child care providers may overperceive parent-related barriers to outdoor play. Parents generally support outdoor play for their preschooler during center-based child care but are not well informed about outdoor playtime and policies. Encouraging communication between parents and early childhood educators about these topics could lead to more universal support and strategies for promoting outdoor and active play opportunities for children, which are important for children’s health and development.     

The Relation of Knowledge-Text Integration Processes and Reading Comprehension in 7th- to 12th-Grade Students

The integration of knowledge during reading was tested in 1,109 secondary school students. Reading times for the second sentence in a pair (Jane’s headache went away) were compared in conditions where the first sentence was either causally or temporally related to the first sentence (Jane took an aspirin vs. Jane looked for an aspirin). Mixed-effects explanatory item response models revealed that at higher comprehension levels, sentences were read more quickly in the causal condition. There were no condition-related reading time differences at lower comprehension levels. This interaction held with comprehension- and inference-related factors (working memory, word and world knowledge, and word reading efficiency) in the models. Less skilled comprehenders have difficulty in knowledge-text integration processes that facilitate sentence processing during reading.     

Learning and gender: Complexity and possibility

Severiens and Ten Dam's efforts to link theories of learning and gender are applauded as a valuable step forward in understanding learning. Complexities of the relationships among epistemic structures, patterns within structures, and learning activities are highlighted as are dilemmas in assessing these multiple layers of learning.