Prompt students to sketch a drawing of the system while reading an expository science text¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

This strategy asks readers, rather than presenting them with visualizations, to "draw a representation of the earth's climate system" while reading an un-illustrated expository text. In the study it combined generative, constructive processing with spatial thinking, and it produced the best understanding and the most accurate comprehension monitoring of the six conditions. The article suggests sketching may also help students avoid seductive effects of images on monitoring.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Students must be prompted to generate their own sketches during reading; the article notes some students may feel ineffective at drawing, which may undermine potential benefits

Constraints¶

• The article notes a general concern that students lacking drawing skills may not benefit; a cited study found sketching was unable to reduce the effect of seductive textual details

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate students learning from expository science texts

Target Learning Goals¶

• causal understanding of scientific processes and accurate monitoring of one's own comprehension

Affordances¶

• Deception Account Comprehension Monitoring

Related Strategies¶

• Drawing To Learn
• Draw To Explain
• Drawing for Memory and Comprehension
• Visualizing

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Wiley, J. (2019). Picture this! Effects of photographs, diagrams, animations, and sketching on learning and beliefs about learning from a geoscience text. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33, 9-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3495