A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Learning electric circuit principles in a simulation environment with a single representation versus "concreteness fading" through multiple representations
Tekijät: Tomi Jaakkola, Koen Veermans
Kustantaja: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Julkaisuvuosi: 2020
Journal: Computers and Education
Tietokannassa oleva lehden nimi: COMPUTERS & EDUCATION
Lehden akronyymi: COMPUT EDUC
Artikkelin numero: ARTN 103811
Vuosikerta: 148
Sivujen määrä: 17
ISSN: 0360-1315
eISSN: 1873-782X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103811
Tiivistelmä
This study explored how learning in a simulation environment with a single representation compares to learning with concreteness fading in the domain of electric circuits in secondary school. Concreteness fading, an instructional technique where representations change from concrete to more abstract during a learning sequence, has been proposed as an approach to combine the strengths of each representation and to promote transfer, but the empirical evidence is not unequivocal. One reason may be that defining "concrete" and "abstract" for the purpose of concreteness fading is less straightforward in practice than in theory, as illustrated in the conceptualization of concreteness fading in this study. The results showed no differences in content coverage and total learning time between conditions, but the transition between representations temporarily increased learning time in the fading condition. An analysis of the learning revealed no differences between conditions on circuits similar in appearance to the simulation environment, but the single representation resulted in better application of the learned knowledge to realistic circuits. The discussion explores the results from the perspective of concreteness fading and alternative conceptualizations of the learning environment. One of these, resulting from the difficulty in positioning computer simulations within concrete-abstract dimensions, is that computer simulations can include concrete and abstract in a single representation, which may be easier (and more effective) in classroom settings than multiple representations. This suggests that a well-designed simulation can be a reckoned alternative to concreteness fading and to multiple representations in general in science education.
This study explored how learning in a simulation environment with a single representation compares to learning with concreteness fading in the domain of electric circuits in secondary school. Concreteness fading, an instructional technique where representations change from concrete to more abstract during a learning sequence, has been proposed as an approach to combine the strengths of each representation and to promote transfer, but the empirical evidence is not unequivocal. One reason may be that defining "concrete" and "abstract" for the purpose of concreteness fading is less straightforward in practice than in theory, as illustrated in the conceptualization of concreteness fading in this study. The results showed no differences in content coverage and total learning time between conditions, but the transition between representations temporarily increased learning time in the fading condition. An analysis of the learning revealed no differences between conditions on circuits similar in appearance to the simulation environment, but the single representation resulted in better application of the learned knowledge to realistic circuits. The discussion explores the results from the perspective of concreteness fading and alternative conceptualizations of the learning environment. One of these, resulting from the difficulty in positioning computer simulations within concrete-abstract dimensions, is that computer simulations can include concrete and abstract in a single representation, which may be easier (and more effective) in classroom settings than multiple representations. This suggests that a well-designed simulation can be a reckoned alternative to concreteness fading and to multiple representations in general in science education.
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