The interrelations between diagrammatic representations and verbal explanations in learning from social science texts

Abstract

This study examined the instructional effectiveness of abstract diagrams and verbal explanations in leaming from social science texts, which contained multi-thematic infomration and were new to the students. Two texts of about 4,WO words each were examined.

Diagram Literacy in Preservice Math Teachers, Computer Science Majors, and Typical Undergraduates: The Case of Matrices, Networks, and Hierarchies

“…In fact, numerous empirical studies have provided evidence of better learning and problem solving in a variety of domains when such diagrams are used (e.g., Bartram, 1980;Guri-Rozenblit, 1988;Holliday, 1976;Novick & Hmelo, 1994;Scanlon, 1989;Schwartz, 1971;Vessey & Weber, 1986). The usefulness of these diagrams appears to derive from three sources: They simplify complex situations by providing a concise means of depicting their abstract structure (Greer & Harel, 1998;NCTM, 2000;Woleck, 2001), they make abstract concepts more concrete (Winn, 1989), and they substitute easier perceptual inferences for more computationally-intensive search processes and sentential deductive inferences (Barwise & Etchemendy, 1991;Larkin & Simon, 1987).…”

Sequential processing in comprehension of hierarchical graphs

“…The usefulness of graphs and diagrams for visualization has often been reported when readers have to learn from texts (e.g. Guri-Rozenblit, 1988;Hegarty & Just, 1993;Mayer & Gallini, 1990;Sweller, Chandler, Tierney, & Cooper, 1990). Educators in mathematics have emphasized how important it is that students learn how to interpret such diagrams as well as produce them from texts (e.g.…”

The role of pictures in learning biology: Part 2, picture—text processing

“…It is known that improving scanning strategies can improve reading (Aaronson andFerres, 1984 and, and Coles and his co-workers have demonstrated a similar pheno menon with pictures (Coles, Sigman, and Chessel, 1977). Guri-Rozenblit (1988) showed that when a diagram was explained in the text, adults learned more effectively, although the illustration used was a tree diagram indicating the hierarchical nature of the concepts embedded in the text, and does not really come into that category of pictures which are the focus of this review.…”