Evaluation of Students' Use of Visual Learning Representations in Science Classes: A Case Study from Turkey

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 244 - 265, 07.07.2019

Tufan İnaltekin , Volkan Goksu

https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.541917

Abstract

The
aim of this study was to analyse the kinds and frequency of visual learning
representations within 8th grade students’ notebooks for science classes. As
part of the research, 93 science notebooks which belonged to students from 13
secondary schools in Kars Province (the east of Turkey) were collected at the
end of the academic year in 2018. Document analysis, a qualitative research
strategy, has been adopted and content analysis technique was used to analyse
the collected documents. The results showed that the visual learning
representations recorded on students’ notebooks were notably different from one
unit to another and from one school to another. Moreover, it has been observed
that students did not make frequent use of visual representations whilst learning
the content.  Additionally, the visual
learning representations in students’ notebooks mostly consisted of the
representations used by teachers during classes. These findings suggest that
science teachers might have not been successful enough in guiding students to
incorporate different visual representations into their learning processes for
a better understanding of science subjects. 

Keywords

Science notebooks, Visual representations, Science Learning

References

• Inaltekin, T. & Goksu, V. (2019). Evaluation of students' use of visual learning representations in science classes: A case study from Turkey. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 5(2), 244-265. DOI:10.21891/jeseh.541917