Deciding on Drawing: The Topic Matters When Using Drawing as a Science Learning Strategy

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Metacognition and Motivation

Abstract

The drawing-to-learn (D2L) literature suggests that drawing is an effective, high-level learning strategy, but many studies are in high school and undergraduate chemistry and physics classes (e.g., Chang et al., 2010; Heckler, 2010). We studied D2L versus summarizing in the under-researched context of middle school (MS) science classrooms. Students learned about four weather and physical science topics, and we explored how the strategy aided students’ during-learning strategy quality and post-test scores across the four topics. Results suggest that effects of D2L on during-learning and post-test performance differ across topics. For MS students, summarizing is equally effective as D2L—though less enjoyable—except when students over-focus on elements at the expense of depicting relations in drawings.

Authors

• Andrea J. Kunze, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Jennifer G. Cromley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Juhi S Shah, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign