Eva Wennås Brante

Exploring the impact of contrasting cases in text and picture processing

Abstract Multimodal learning materials are frequently met in education assuming enhanced learning outcomes. This study examined whether contrasts in such materials are likely to support reading comprehension for all readers. Young adults (n=46) met either text-only or text+picture material. Participants (19 with low phonological awareness [PA] and 27 controls with high PA) thereafter answered open interview questions to check for reading comprehension. Learning materials were designed to focus readers on aspects critical to understanding the content by the use of contrasts; eye-tracking was used as method. Well-known pictures aided information recall, but contrasts described in the text were most effective for learning.

The Effect of Illustration on Improving Text Comprehension in Dyslexic Adults

This study analyses the effect of pictures in reading materials on the viewing patterns of dyslexic adults. By analysing viewing patterns using eye‐tracking, we captured differences in eye movements between young adults with dyslexia and controls based on the influence of reading skill as a continuous variable of the total sample. Both types of participants were assigned randomly to view either text‐only or a text + picture stimuli. The results show that the controls made an early global overview of the material and (when a picture was present) rapid transitions between text and picture. Having text illustrated with a picture decreased scores on questions about the learning material among participants with dyslexia. Controls spent 1.7% and dyslexic participants 1% of their time on the picture. Controls had 24% fewer total fixations; however, 29% more of the control groups fixations than the dyslexic groups fixations were on the picture. We also looked for effects of different types of pictures. Dyslexic subjects exhibited a comparable viewing pattern to controls when scenes were complex, but fewer fixations when scenes were neutral/simple. Individual scan paths are presented as examples of atypical viewing patterns for individuals with dyslexia as compared with controls.

What is discerned in teachers' expressions about planning? : similarities and differences between teachers from Sweden and Hong Kong

The aim of this study is to find out what teachers say their primary focus is when planning to teach an object of learning. The study is carried out in two different cultural contexts, Sweden and Hong Kong, and based on the framework of variation theory, which has a two-fold focus, namely both what teachers do and what students learn at school. Fifteen semi-structured open-ended interviews were conducted with nine Swedish and six Hong Kong teachers in grades 1 to 6. The analysis generated categories inspired from a phenomenographic research approach, where attention is directed towards respondents’ apprehensions of a phenomenon. The results showed some clear differences in the way teachers from the two countries talked about how they organise and think about planning, which in turn reveals whether their focus is on students’ understanding or on teacher action. The Swedish teachers’ experienced focus is on activities/methods, and they separate activities and methods from the content, while the Hong Kong teachers have the content in the foreground and do not separate content and act. There can be several different explanations of the differences identified; such as that a too general theoretical and surface awareness of concepts of learning makes it difficult to reach a detailed level of the object of learning, i.e. what it actually takes for students to learn exactly this phenomenon or ability. The Swedish teachers seem to underestimate what it takes to learn due to a theoretical framework. Another explanation of this difference in focus might be that teachers need support from each other to deepen the reflections about the subject, thus achieving knowledge of what it takes to understand the intended object of learning. The Hong Kong teachers report frequent opportunities to discuss and reflect over subject-related matters.

The Image of Images as an Aid to Improve Learning

This study addresses differences in the design of computer-based learning materials—text with or without pictures—and the aim is to show in what way these differences affect learning outcomes. In total, 46 young adults participated: 19 with dyslexia and 27 controls. Approximately half of each group received the condition text only, and half received the text and an integrated picture. The learning material was presented on computer screens, and the participants’ viewing patterns were registered by eye-tracking. The respondents answered text-based and picture-based questions, as well as oral questions, during the experiment. The assumptions about learning are based on variation theory and on the importance of contrasts in discerning important aspects of the learning material. The results show that whether material of the same content (surrealism) is presented in text only (without explicit contrasts embedded in the text) or in text and picture form (which offers a contrast) affects learning outcomes, particularly for the participants with dyslexia, who showed a fourfold increase from pre-test to post-test (from .10 to .40).