Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 11, Issue 1, Foreword (Jun., 2010) John K. GILBERT The role of visual representations in the learning and teaching of science: An introduction Previous Contents Next

Supporting the attainment /use of metavisual capability

The task and its attainment

As a set of mental operations, metavisual capability consists of the fluent deployment of three complimentary skills, those of:

‘1. Spatial Visualization: The ability to understand three-dimensional objects from two-dimensional representations of them (and vice-versa)

2. Spatial Orientation: The ability to imagine what a three-dimensional representation will look like from a different perspective (this is ‘rotation’)

3. Spatial Relations: The ability to visualize the effects of the operations of reflection and inversion)’ (N.Barnea 2000)

A step-wise scale which shows the progressive development and display of representational competence has been suggested for university students of chemistry (Kosma 2005). However, it is not yet clear whether such a scale has widespread applicability across different age groups or across the sciences. However, this does suggest that systematically addressing these skills in teaching should yield an improved realization of, or the development of metavisualization.

The direct teaching of the codes of representation

The conventions of symbolic representations are taught, for mathematical equations in mathematics education and for chemical equations in chemical education. However, there is no general and systematic address to the codes of the modes and forms, as well as their interpretation, in the context of science education as a whole. A start was made many years ago in chemical education (Tuckey 1993), but the development of a comprehensive corpus of teaching materials does seem well overdue.

The use of multimodal presentations

The ability to ‘translate’ between visual representations and to integrate them with them with verbal presentations can be enhanced by the use of multimodal teaching. This is the use of several relevant modes and forms when teaching a particular idea (Mayer 2005). Principles for good practice in the deployment of multimodal approaches have been proposed by Mayer (2005) on the basis of considerable experience with animations. These are the:

• Multimedia principle. It is better to use words and pictures rather than just words
• Contiguity principle. Words and pictures should be presented at the same time, rather than successively,
• Modality principle. When associated with an animation, words should be presented orally rather than in print form on the screen.
• Redundancy principle. The simultaneous verbal and visual presentation of words is to be avoided.
• Personalization principle. Words are better presented in a conversational style rather than a formal, didactic, style
• Interactivity principle. Learners should be able to control the rate at which the presentation is made
• Signaling principle. Key steps in a narrative should be verbally signaled.

These ideas augment those of Paivio (1986) (discussed earlier) in that they promote the formation of associative and referential connections. This will take place in response to either visual or non-visual stimuli as well as in response to those produced between them.

Good pedagogic practice

A number of general pedagogic techniques for the promotion of the skills of visualization have emerged in recent years, not least through the Cams Hill Science Consortium (Newberry 2010). This extended action research project has developed as series of successful teaching strategies for use with students throughout the age range of 5 to 16 years. These are to:

• Have students work in a project mode on problems that they find interesting. This has enhanced student engagement and lead to sustained learning
• Arrange classes so that students work in small teams. The value of peer teaching has become apparent
• Encourage student to evaluate their personal attainment and to set their own future learning goals. A sense of ‘ownership of education’ was widely observed
• Require students to manage their own work and hence learning

This project mode requires students to explicitly engage in modelling, the skills of which need to be taught them.

Teaching of modeling

A ‘model of modelling’ has been developed: a diagram which identifies all the mental activities and phases involved in conducting a project (see Figure 2) (Justi 2002). An early activity in the conduct of any project is the development of a personal mental model or visualization of the core phenomenon. This ‘model of modelling’ has been tried out in a school chemical education course for 15-16 year on the topic of ‘ionic bonding’. It has been found to actively engage students in developing and testing their own visualization of the formation, nature , and explanatory value, of ionic bonds (Gilbert 2010).

Figure 2: A model of modeling (Justi & Gilbert, 2002)