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1. How instructors frame students' interactions with educational technologies can enhance or reduce learning with multiple representations

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.012  

   Wu, S. P.; Corr, J.; Rau, M. A. (April 2019, Computers & education)

   Instructors in STEM classrooms often frame students' interactions with technologies to help them learn content. For instance, in many STEM domains, instructors commonly help students translate physical 3D models into 2D drawings by prompting them to focus on (a) orienting physical 3D models and (b) generating 2D drawings. We investigate whether framing prompts that target either of these practices enhance the effectiveness of an educational technology that supports collaborative translation among multiple representations. To this end, we conducted a quasi-experiment with 565 undergraduate chemistry students. All students collaboratively built physical 3D models of molecules and translated them into 2D drawings. In a business-as-usual control condition, students drew on paper, without support from an educational technology. In two experimental conditions, students drew in an educational technology that provided feedback and prompted collaboration. One condition received framing prompts to focus on physical models (model condition); another received prompts to generate intermediary drawings on paper (draw condition). Compared to the control condition, the model condition showed higher learning gains, but the draw condition showed lower learning gains. Analyses of log data showed that students made more model-based errors, and the prompts in the model condition reduced these model-based errors. However, interviews with instructors showed that they prefer drawing-focused prompts, in contrast to our results. These findings offer theoretical insights into how students learn to translate among representations. Furthermore, they yield practical recommendations for the use of educational technologies that support learning with multiple representations. 

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2. Student Choices: Online Versus In-Person Tutoring Options

   Infante, Nicole; Ogden, Lori; Gallagher, Keith; LaRue, Renee; Moore-Russo, Deborah; Tinsley, Christine; Berger, Ashley (November 2022, Proceedings of the forty-fourth annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education)

   Lischka, A. E.; Dyer, E. B.; Jones, R. S.; Lovett, J. N.; Strayer, J.; Drown, S. (Ed.)

   Access to free, high-quality, institutionally provided tutoring services can be critical to the success of university students. When the pandemic forced university tutoring operations to close or move online, many chose to move operations online. The Fall 2021 semester saw the return of in-person tutoring at many institutions; however, online options remained in place to serve students who may not be able to participate in-person. This created more equitable access to a critical student support. We collected data on which format students chose at two research focused institutions. At one institution, visits were split at 47% online and 53% in-person. In contrast, visits at the other institution were split at 5% online, and 95% in-person. We will discuss the courses with the highest usage in each format and explore why students may be choosing one format over the other. 

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3. Collaboration Scripts Should Focus on Shared Models, Not on Drawings, to Help Students Translate Between Representations

   Wu, S. P.; Rau, M. A. (July 2018, ethinking Learning in the Digital Age. Making the Learning Sciences Count (ICLS) 2018)

   Students often struggle to translate between physical and virtual models when learning concepts in STEM courses. Collaborative activities may help students overcome these difficulties, especially if collaboration scripts prompt students to discuss shared representations. Which representation should collaboration scripts focus students’ interactions on? We investigate this question in a quasi-experiment with 560 undergraduate chemistry students. All students collaboratively built physical ball-and-stick models of molecules and translated them into wedge-dash drawings. Two experimental conditions received a collaboration script. For the model condition, the script prompted students to focus on the physical ball-and-stick models. For the draw condition, the script prompted students to generate intermediary drawings on paper. Compared to a control condition with unscripted collaboration, the model condition showed higher learning gains and the draw condition showed lower learning gains—especially for students with low spatial skills. Our results yield theoretical and practical implications for collaborative practices with multiple representations 

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4. An exploratory study of drawings as a tool to evaluate student understanding of the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-024-00929-x  

   Horne, Lydia; Manzanares, Amanda; Atalan-Helicke, Nurcan; Vincent, Shirley; Anderson, Steven_W; Romulo, Chelsie_L (May 2024, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences)

   Abstract As future decision-makers, students must develop interdisciplinary, systems thinking skills to make effective management decisions; however, systems thinking remains challenging for many students. Here, we use the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus as a framework to examine how drawings can help students cultivate systems thinking skills. Drawings can be tools to make implicit mental models of systems connections explicit for instructors to better comprehend student learning. Our goal was to understand how drawing can help students make connections across systems compared to using only verbal explanations. In 2021, we interviewed undergraduates, asking them to draw and verbally explain the FEW Nexus. Analysis revealed that student drawings showed an increase in the number of connections that half of students could describe when compared to verbal-only explanations. Instructors may benefit from this study by recognizing areas where students might struggle to understand FEW Nexus connections, where additional course emphasis is needed, and how drawings can help assess student learning. 

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5. Promoting students’ self-regulated choices in learning with visual representations in intelligent tutoring software

   Nagashima, T.; Zheng, B.; Tseng, S.; Ling, E.; Aleven, V. (January 2023, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting for the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS2023))

   Although students’ self-regulated learning has been studied extensively, past research has not investigated students’ fine-grained, self-regulated choice-making processes during learning with visual representations and strategies to support such processes. We conducted design and experimental studies with 148 students to develop and evaluate an intervention package for supporting students’ self-regulated choice-making in using diagrammatic scaffolding in algebra tutoring software. A classroom experiment showed that students with the intervention learned greater conceptual and procedural knowledge in algebra than students in the control condition whose choices were not supported. Also, students with the intervention chose to use diagrams less frequently overall but showed distinctive use patterns that changed over time, indicating a form of self-regulated diagram use. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding and supporting choice behaviors that change over time during learning, going beyond simply measuring the frequency of choice behaviors and encouraging students to engage in these behaviors more frequently. 

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