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Instruction-based clinical eye-tracking study on the visual interpretation of divergence : how do students look at vector field plots?
- Source :
- Physical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 14, Iss 1, p 010116 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- American Physical Society, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Relating mathematical concepts to graphical representations is a challenging task for students. In this paper, we introduce two visual strategies to qualitatively interpret the divergence of graphical vector field representations. One strategy is based on the graphical interpretation of partial derivatives, while the other is based on the flux concept. We test the effectiveness of both strategies in an instruction-based eye-tracking study with N = 41 physics majors. We found that students’ performance improved when both strategies were introduced (74% correct) instead of only one strategy (64% correct), and students performed best when they were free to choose between the two strategies (88% correct). This finding supports the idea of introducing multiple representations of a physical concept to foster student understanding. Relevant eye-tracking measures demonstrate that both strategies imply different visual processing of the vector field plots, therefore reflecting conceptual differences between the strategies. Advanced analysis methods further reveal significant differences in eye movements between the best and worst performing students. For instance, the best students performed predominantly horizontal and vertical saccades, indicating correct interpretation of partial derivatives. They also focused on smaller regions when they balanced positive and negative flux. This mixed-method research leads to new insights into student visual processing of vector field representations, highlights the advantages and limitations of eye-tracking methodologies in this context, and discusses implications for teaching and for future research. The introduction of saccadic direction analysis expands traditional methods, and shows the potential to discover new insights into student understanding and learning difficulties. peerReviewed
- Subjects :
- QC1-999
graafinen esitys
Undergraduate Students
Physics Education Research
General Physics and Astronomy
Research Methodology
Context (language use)
Lernen
Assessment
Machine learning
computer.software_genre
01 natural sciences
Education
Visual processing
silmänliikkeet
ddc:370
Concept learning
0103 physical sciences
vektorit (matematiikka)
ddc:530
ta516
Wissensrepräsentation
010306 general physics
Divergence (statistics)
graphical representations
visual processing
eye-tracking
LC8-6691
students
opiskelijat
business.industry
Physics
Multimethodology
05 social sciences
Concepts & Principles
050301 education
Kognitives Lernen
Special aspects of education
Saccadic masking
Physikdidaktik
Eye tracking
Partial derivative
Artificial intelligence
business
vector fields
0503 education
computer
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Physical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 14, Iss 1, p 010116 (2018)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0fe002c018140cfafa1c05bcf0140e33