THE INTERACTION OF VISUAL AND VERBAL LESSON COMPONENTS WITH CONCEPT LEVEL AND ACADEMIC LEVEL OF LEARNER
Abstract
The role of visual and verbal lesson components in teaching geometric concepts to high school and university students was investigated. Three lesson formats varying in visual and verbal content were computer-presented: D-O, definition only; D-E, definition and visual example; and E-N, a set of visual examples and nonexamples. Each lesson was designed to teach one of two levels of a pseudo-geometric concept, for which "level" referred to the number of defining attributes. The design was a 2 x 2 x 3 multivariate analysis of variance. The low level concept, the one with fewer relevant attributes, was the more difficult to learn. Inclusion of a verbal definition facilitated the learning of the low level concept learning. High school subjects seemed to be visual cue oriented; university subjects verbal definition oriented. A second part of the experiment was designed to enable characterization of the concept learner. Subjects consecutively learned two additional pseudo-geometric concepts. The subject was able to shift from viewing visual example to definition controlling, frequency and duration of exposure. Neither spatial nor verbal tests correlated with any dependent variable. However, high school subjects spent a greater proportion of their study time on the verbal definition. Although the two concepts were of different levels, correlations indicate that subjects devoted the same proportion of time to definition/example for both concepts. Subjects indicated a preference for the mode of learning in Part II: control over exposure to definition and example. Since the computer provides such flexibility of interaction, it is recommended that computer concept teaching be incorporated into the experimental and classroom settings.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Mathematics education
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