Supporting Conceptual Understanding Through Richer Perceptual Experience

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Technology-Based Learning Environments for STEM Education

Abstract

This study investigates how variations in students’ sensory experience while using a virtual manipulative environment impacted their understanding of multiplication. Eighty (n = 80) first grade students were randomly assigned to four experimental groups that varied the learning environment’s degree of perceptual richness. This was accomplished by systematically varying the auditory and kinesthetic modalities. The results reveal that participants with the richest sensory experience at the time of learning had the highest learning outcomes at post-test. These results applied to studied and unstudied multiplication problems suggesting that perceptual richness may have contributed to participants’ conceptual understanding of the target concept. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Authors

• Seungoh Paek, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• Daniel L. Hoffman, Kamehameha Schools