Reasoning About Visual Information (RAVI): An Intervention to Improve Meta-Representational Competence (Poster 31)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 9:50 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Learning Processes: Reasoning, Memory, and Executive Functioning

Abstract

Improving college students’ ability to learn from and with diagrams has been the focus of substantial research. Few studies, however, have addressed meta-representational competence, or what students know about diagrams and their functions. This study tests Reasoning about Visual Information (RAVI), an intervention to enhance meta-representational competence. Through RAVI, students learn how to determine the function of a diagram and use question sets to guide diagram study. In two experimental conditions, participants learned RAVI through either contrasting cases or explicit explanation instruction. Participants in the control condition learned about diagram conventions. Results show that RAVI has the potential to improve students’ meta-representational competence: RAVI-trained participants acquired more factual diagram-related knowledge and were better able to apply this knowledge.

Authors

• Peggy N. Van Meter, Pennsylvania State University

• Dani Waters, Pennsylvania State University

• Cory Tondreau, Pennsylvania State University