Multiple External Representations in Physics: How Do Students Integrate Text, Tables, and Graphics in Textbooks?

• In Event: Postsecondary Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Traditional textbooks provide their readers with a combination of different types of representations, as it is assumed that learning with such multiple external representations (MERs) fosters the students’ acquisition of scientific concepts. In the present study (N=39) we investigated how gaze behavior is related to knowledge acquisition from more than two representations on a digital Physics textbook page. Results indicated that especially the learner’s intensive and early attention to representations including numerical values (e. g., tables) and their integration behavior across these specific types of representations was positively related to learning performance.

Authors

• Sarah Malone, Saarland University

• Christiane Baadte

• Carina Heisel, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern

• Pascal Klein, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

• Roland Bruenken, Saarland University

• Jochen Kuhn, Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern