Beyond categories: dynamic qualitative analysis of visuospatial representation in arithmetic

Visuospatial representations of numbers and their relationships are widely used in mathematics education. These include drawn images, models constructed with concrete manipulatives, enactive/embodied forms, computer graphics, and more. This paper addresses the analytical limitations and ethical implications of methodologies that use broad categorizations of representations and argues the benefits of dynamic qualitative analysis of arithmetical-representational strategy across multiple semi-independent aspects of display, calculation, and interaction. It proposes an alternative methodological approach combining the structured organization of classification with the detailed nuance of description and describes a systematic but flexible framework for analysing nonstandard visuospatial representations of early arithmetic. This approach is intended for use by researchers or practitioners, for interpretation of multimodal and nonstandard visuospatial representations, and for identification of small differences in learners’ developing arithmetical-representational strategies, including changes over time. Application is illustrated using selected data from a microanalytic study of struggling students’ multiplication and division in scenario tasks.

Hands-on learning: The influence of hand gestures on children's recall of scientific information

<p>When people speak they typically also gesture. Gesture and speech form an integrated communication system, with speech conveying information in a rule-bound and sequential manner (i.e. one word follows the other in accordance with grammatical rules) while gesture conveys information holistically in a visuospatial representation. These gestural hand movements not only aid the process of speaking, but also convey important information to the listener. While observing gesture during learning can facilitate children’s understanding and remembering of novel and isolated information (e.g.(Cook, Duffy, & Fenn, 2013), observing gesture may also support children in recalling complex, discursive content. This thesis examined the role observing gesture may play in supporting children’s learning and recall of narrative, scientific content. The 7- to 9-year-old children, who participated in this program of research, learnt about the solar system either with or without accompanying gestures. Children’s recall was assessed via interviews, both at short delays (one day) and long delays (two weeks or seven months after learning). It was hypothesised that gesture would improve children’s recall by grounding the abstract scientific ideas in a physical representation, disambiguating novel terms, and providing an additional representation for children to process, store, and retrieve. In Study 1, the influence of observing gesture in supporting children’s learning and recall was examined in combination with adult initiated wh-questions. The study was also conducted in the presence of visual aids. Results indicated that observing gesture only had a limited effect on children’s recall in Study 1 (both independently and in combination with wh-questions), so Study 2 examined the role of observing gesture in the absence of additional visual and verbal supports. Children’s recall was assessed both the next day and seven months later. Study 3 then manipulated both the gesture children observed at learning and the gesture children performed during recall the next day (i.e. instructed, allowed or restricted from gesturing). Finally, Study 4 examined children’s recall of spatial terms across the three studies. The overarching results revealed that children who observed gesture during learning tended to report more spatial terms, but did not show improved recall of the facts and concepts taught. When children observed gesture they did, however, produce a greater rate of representational gestures during recall. In particular, children who observed gesture were more likely to mimic the gestures they had observed, and in doing so improve their verbal recall both within the same interview and across interviews. The instruction to produce gesture did not appear to be effective in augmenting the influence of children’s gesture production, but restricting children from gesturing was found to hinder recall. Observing gesture was only indirectly effective in supporting children’s recall. One possible explanation for this findings may be that children found it difficult to integrate the gestural and verbal information into a cohesive message. Perhaps it was only when children produced gesture that they were able to non-verbally access the encoded gestural content and convert it into speech. While children’s own gesture appears to be the driving force in improving children’s learning and recall, adults must be aware of the way they move their hands during educational lessons, as these gestures likely set the stage for how children themselves will gesture.</p>

Hands-on learning: The influence of hand gestures on children's recall of scientific information

<p>When people speak they typically also gesture. Gesture and speech form an integrated communication system, with speech conveying information in a rule-bound and sequential manner (i.e. one word follows the other in accordance with grammatical rules) while gesture conveys information holistically in a visuospatial representation. These gestural hand movements not only aid the process of speaking, but also convey important information to the listener. While observing gesture during learning can facilitate children’s understanding and remembering of novel and isolated information (e.g.(Cook, Duffy, & Fenn, 2013), observing gesture may also support children in recalling complex, discursive content. This thesis examined the role observing gesture may play in supporting children’s learning and recall of narrative, scientific content. The 7- to 9-year-old children, who participated in this program of research, learnt about the solar system either with or without accompanying gestures. Children’s recall was assessed via interviews, both at short delays (one day) and long delays (two weeks or seven months after learning). It was hypothesised that gesture would improve children’s recall by grounding the abstract scientific ideas in a physical representation, disambiguating novel terms, and providing an additional representation for children to process, store, and retrieve. In Study 1, the influence of observing gesture in supporting children’s learning and recall was examined in combination with adult initiated wh-questions. The study was also conducted in the presence of visual aids. Results indicated that observing gesture only had a limited effect on children’s recall in Study 1 (both independently and in combination with wh-questions), so Study 2 examined the role of observing gesture in the absence of additional visual and verbal supports. Children’s recall was assessed both the next day and seven months later. Study 3 then manipulated both the gesture children observed at learning and the gesture children performed during recall the next day (i.e. instructed, allowed or restricted from gesturing). Finally, Study 4 examined children’s recall of spatial terms across the three studies. The overarching results revealed that children who observed gesture during learning tended to report more spatial terms, but did not show improved recall of the facts and concepts taught. When children observed gesture they did, however, produce a greater rate of representational gestures during recall. In particular, children who observed gesture were more likely to mimic the gestures they had observed, and in doing so improve their verbal recall both within the same interview and across interviews. The instruction to produce gesture did not appear to be effective in augmenting the influence of children’s gesture production, but restricting children from gesturing was found to hinder recall. Observing gesture was only indirectly effective in supporting children’s recall. One possible explanation for this findings may be that children found it difficult to integrate the gestural and verbal information into a cohesive message. Perhaps it was only when children produced gesture that they were able to non-verbally access the encoded gestural content and convert it into speech. While children’s own gesture appears to be the driving force in improving children’s learning and recall, adults must be aware of the way they move their hands during educational lessons, as these gestures likely set the stage for how children themselves will gesture.</p>

The Role of Visuospatial Representation to Improve Student’s Conceptual Mastery based on Gender in Learning Human Urinary System

Study of this research investigates the role of visuospatial representation using Wimba model to improve student’s conceptual mastery based on gender in learning Human Urinary System. The method used in this research was experimental research with matching pretest-posttest comparison group design. The sample was taken based on gender classes consisting of boys class (n=21) and girls class (n=9) in one of Bilingual School in Bandung. The quantitative data of this research was investigated through the objective test, while the supportive qualitative data gathered through Likert-Scale. The conceptual mastery of both classes measured based on Bloom’s taxonomy cognitive domain through an objective test. Data processing was done by independent sample t-test. The result of this research shows that there are significant differences in conceptual mastery improvement between girl class and boy class by using visuospatial representation as a model. The research indicates that girl class is outperformed in conceptual mastery almost in each cognitive domain than boy class, and girl class also shows more positive responses toward learning using visuospatial representation than boy class.

Dyslexia Subtype with Simultaneous Processing of Intraobject Spatial Relations in an “Ecological Syndrome”

Three interrelated phenomena of a global visuospatial representation are discussed within the context of a subtype of “spatial dyslexia” as part of an “ecological syndrome.” (1) Results from a new test, Draw-A-Person-With-Face-In-Front (using simple measurement and requiring no graphic or aesthetic skills) showed in a third of 269 Australian Aboriginal school children a deficient representation of spatial relations within the natural pattern of the upper part of the human face. (2) The test performance apparently is an indicator of a similarly deficient representation of the spatial relations within written signs (single letters, short, isolated functional words, and novel or “nonwords” lacking strong semantic association and imageability). The test discriminates between two modes of visuospatial pictorial (and implied mental) representation, a simultaneous and merely “ inter object”-related global kind vs a successive and “ intraobject”-related one. Further support for such conceptualizing is found in a positive correlation between certain low literacy skills and the specific results (in 6000 examined cases) on the new drawing test. Both inabilities implicate a simultaneous global mode of visuospatial processing, which early in life promptly elicits the infants' in discriminate automatic “smiling response” and appears to be resorted to still later in life by persons with “spatial dyslexia.” (3) Such conceptualizing interrelates with the so far puzzling difference between “literal alexia” vs “verbal alexia” known to neuropathology (not implicated in the present cases but pointing to an underlying structuring process shared by pathological and by “ecological syndromes” alike).