The literature contains conflicting ideas about the effectiveness of diagrams, and their constituent
symbolism as teaching and learning tools. In addition, only limited research has been specifically
conducted on the presentation and interpretation of arrow symbolism used in biology diagrams, let
alone on the nature, source and remediation of student difficulties caused by arrows. On the basis
of this limited research and 30 years of experience of teaching biology at secondary-level, the
author suspected that students might have difficulties interpreting arrow symbolism in diagrams
used as explanatory tools and decided to thoroughly investigate this issue. The hypothesis,
'Secondary-level students have difficulty with the use of arrow symbolism in biology diagrams' was
formulated and the following broad research questions defined to address the hypothesis:
1. How much of a problem is arrow symbolism in diagrams?
2. How effectively is arrow symbolism used in diagrams to promote the communication of intended
ideas?
3. To what extent does the design of arrow symbolism in diagrams influence students '
interpretation and difficulties?
4. How can the emerging empirical data and ideas from literature be combined to illustrate the
process of interpretation of arrow symbolism?
5. What measures can be suggested for improving the presentation and interpretation of arrow
symbolism in biology diagrams at secondary-level?
To address Research question 1, a content analysis of all arrow symbolism in seven popular
secondary-level biology textbooks was undertaken. This revealed a wide diversity of arrow styles,
spatial organisations, purposes and meanings that could be confusing to students. These results
suggested the need for an evaluation of the effectiveness of arrow symbolism (Research question
2). As there was no definitive set of guidelines available for specifically evaluating arrows, general
guidelines from the literature on diagrams were used to develop a set of 10 criteria, to evaluate the
syntactic, semantic and pragmatic dimensions of arrow symbolism, which were validated by
selected educators, students and a graphic design expert. Application of the criteria (which
constituted expert opinion) to the arrow symbolism used in 614 realistic, stylised and abstract
diagram types, revealed a relatively high incidence (30%) of inappropriately presented arrow
designs that could mislead students. To establish whether this problem could be the cause of
student difficulties, and to thereby address Research question 3, a stylised and an abstract diagram
were selected and evaluated according to the criteria. The results of the evaluation were compared
to the responses given by 174 students to a range of written and interview probes and student modified
diagrams. In this way, student performance was correlated with expert opinion. The
results confirmed that students experience a wide range of difficulties (26 categories) when
interpreting arrow symbolism, with some (12 categories) being attributable to inappropriately
presented arrow symbolism and others (14 categories) to student-related processing skills and
strategies at both surface- and deeper-levels of reasoning. To address question 4, the emerging
empirical data from the evaluation and student studies was combined with a wide range of
literature, to inform the development of a 3-level, non-tiered model of the process of interpretation
of arrow symbolism in diagrams. As this model emphasised the importance of both arrow
presentation in diagrams and arrow interpretation by students, it could be used as an effective
explanatory tool as well as a predictive tool to identify sources of difficulty with the use of arrow
symbolism. This model was, in turn, used to inform the compilation of a range of guidelines for
improving the presentation and interpretation of arrow symbolism, and so target Research question
5. These, and other guidelines grounded in the data and relevant literature, were suggested for all
role players, including students, educators, textbook writers, graphic artists and researchers, to use
as remedial tools. Future research should focus on the implementation of these guidelines and
studying their effectiveness for improving the presentation and interpretation of diagrams with
arrow and other types of symbolism. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5530 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Du Plessis, Lynn. |
| Contributors | Anderson, Trevor Ryan. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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