Developing young adults' representational competence through infographic-based science news reporting

ABSTRACT

This study presents descriptive analysis of young adults' use of multiple representations in the context of science news reporting. Across one semester, 71 high school students, in a socioeconomically diverse suburban secondary school in Midwestern United States, participated in activities of researching science topics of their choice and producing infographic-based science news for possible online publication. An external editor reviewed their draft infographics and provided comments for subsequent revision. Students also provided peer feedback to the draft version of infographics using an online commentary tool. We analysed the nature of representations students used as well as the comments from peer and the editor feedback. Results showed both students' capabilities and challenges in learning with representations in this context. Students frequently rely on using certain kinds of representations that are depictive in nature, and supporting their progress towards using more abstract representations requires special attention and identifying learning gaps. Results also showed that students were able to determine representational adequacy in the context of providing peer feedback. The study has implication for research and instruction using infographics as expressive tools to support learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Representational competence
• infographics
• visual representations
• science literacy
• multiple representations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundations [grant numbers IIS-1217052 and IIS-1441561].