Clip Art or No Clip Art: A Lesson from Cognitive Science for Social Work Educators

ABSTRACT

The effect of electronic slides on student learning in the classroom and the impact of adding clip art to these slides were evaluated. One hundred forty-two college students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a lecture without slide presentations (control), a lecture that used slides containing only text, or a lecture that used slides containing both text and clip-art pictures. Student learning was measured using questions on a scheduled 2-day postinstruction quiz and new questions on a final examination. Knowledge retention was not different for the three groups on the postinstruction quiz, but was lower for both experimental groups at the time of the final examination. Educators are cautioned to evaluate empirically the use of educational innovations.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive science
• presentation slides
• education and learning