Collaborative Research: Exploring the Comprehension and Meta-comprehension Benefits of Learner-Generated Drawings in Science

学业成功取决于学生理解课文的能力。这样的理解在本科理科课程中可能是具有挑战性的，因为课文经常描述复杂、动态和看不见的东西。有效的语篇理解的一个关键因素是监控和调节自己学习的能力。不幸的是，学生往往对自己的学习做出不准确的判断，导致他们做出无效的学习选择，并取得有限的学习成果。这个项目将探索学习者生成的图画，这是一种很有前途的策略，可以加强对科学文本的自我调节学习。尽管创作图画在某些情况下可以增强学习，但关于绘画过程的不同组成部分如何有助于理解和自我调节，人们知之甚少。这些部分包括绘制图纸、将自己的图纸与反馈进行比较，以及根据反馈修改图纸。这个合作项目将进行第一组实验，旨在识别跨多个科学学科的学习者生成的图纸的关键要素。通过确定绘画的哪些组成部分具有最大的益处，本研究可以帮助教师更有效地实施以绘画为基础的学习活动，并支持在科学课程中最有可能陷入困境的学生。这个项目将调查通过绘画学习如何有助于理解、监控准确性和自我调节。在一系列的实验室实验中，该项目将系统地分离出绘图的三个核心机制：生成、比较和修改的认知和元认知益处。该项目将检验这样一种假设，即最有利于理解的学习条件可能与最支持元理解的条件不同，这取决于学习过程中可用的诊断线索。一个项目目标是确定图形生成的最佳级别：完全由学员生成、部分由学员生成、教师提供或教师生成。第二个目标将研究积极比较一个人的全部或部分完成的图纸与教师提供的图纸形式的反馈的贡献。第三个目标将根据提供的反馈确定修改学生生成的或教师提供的图纸错误的作用。最终目标将结合最优生成、比较和修改条件，并研究学生随后的重学行为和学习结果。总体而言，了解支持在学习中学习的机制将有助于现有的自主学习模式，并为未来研究提供路线图，准确地调查这些机制是如何工作的，包括它们何时工作以及为谁工作。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Academic success depends on students’ ability to comprehend text. Such comprehension can be challenging in undergraduate science courses because the text often describes things that are complex, dynamic, and invisible. One critical factor in effective text comprehension is the ability to monitor and regulate one’s own learning. Unfortunately, students are often inaccurate judges of their learning, leading them to make ineffective study choices and to achieve limited learning outcomes. This project will explore learner-generated drawing, a promising strategy for enhancing self-regulated learning from science text. Although creating drawings can enhance learning under some conditions, little is known about how different components of the drawing process contribute to comprehension and self-regulation. These components include making the drawing, comparing one’s drawing to feedback, and revising one’s drawing in response to the feedback. This collaborative project will conduct the first set of experiments designed to identify critical elements of learner-generated drawings across multiple scientific disciplines. By identifying which components of drawing have the strongest benefits, this research can help instructors more effectively implement drawing-based learning activities and support students who are most at-risk of struggling in science courses. This project will investigate how learning by drawing contributes to comprehension, monitoring accuracy, and self-regulation. In a series of laboratory experiments, this project will systematically isolate the cognitive and metacognitive benefits of three core mechanisms of drawing: generation, comparison, and revision. The project will test the hypothesis that the learning conditions that best support comprehension may differ from the conditions that best support meta-comprehension, depending on the diagnostic cues available during learning. One project aim is to determine the optimal level of drawing generation: fully-learner-generated, partially-learner-generated, instructor-provided, or instructor-generated. The second aim will study the contribution of actively comparing one’s fully or partially completed drawings to feedback in the form of instructor-provided drawings. The third aim will identify the role of revising learner-generated or instructor-provided errors in drawings based on provided feedback. The final aim will combine optimal generation, comparison, and revision conditions, and study students’ subsequent restudy behavior and learning outcomes. Overall, understanding the mechanisms that support learning by drawing will contribute to existing models of self-regulated learning and provide a roadmap for future research investigating precisely how these mechanisms work, including when they work and for whom.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.