Development of a taxonomy for visual literacy in the molecular life sciences.
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Date
2007
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Abstract
The use of external representations (ERs) such as diagrams and animations in science
education, particularly in the Molecular Life Sciences (MLS), has rapidly increased over
the past decades. Research shows that ERs have a superior advantage over text alone for
teaching and learning. Research has also indicated a number of concerns coupled with the
use of ERs for education purposes. Such problems emanate from the mode of
presentation and/or inability to use ERs. Regarding the later, a number of factors have
been identified as major causes of student difficulties and they include visual literacy as
one of the major factors. Given that little has been done to understand the nature of VL in
the MLS the current study was conducted with the general aim of investigating this area
and devising a way to measure the visual literacy levels of our students. More
specifically, this study addressed the following research questions: i) What is the nature
of visual literacy in MLS?; ii) Can specific levels of visual literacy be defined in the
MLS?; and iii) Is a taxonomy a useful way of representing the levels of visual literacy for
MLS? To respond to these questions, the current literature was used to define the nature
of visual literacy and the visualization skills (VSs). These were then used to develop a
Visual Literacy Test made up on probes in the context of Biochemistry. In these probes,
the VSs were incorporated. The test was administered to 3rd year Biochemistry students
who were also interviewed. Results were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The
later analysis utilized the Rasch model to generate an item difficulty map. The results of
the current study show that visual literacy is multifaceted in nature and is context based
in that it requires specific propositional knowledge. In line with this, it was found that
visual literacy is expressed through a cognitive process of visualization which requires
VSs. Based on the performance of these skills, learners’ optimal visual literacy in the
context of the MLS can be defined. Such performance can be assessed through the
development of probes in the Biochemistry context. Furthermore, the current research has
shown that using probes, the difficulty degree of each VS can be determined. In this
instance, the Rasch model is a preferred method of ranking VSs in the context of
Biochemistry in order of difficulty. From this, it was shown that given the uniqueness of
each skill’s degree of difficulty, each skill can thus be regarded as a level of visual
literacy. Such levels were defined in terms of the norm difficulty obtained in the current
study. Given the multifaceted nature of visual literacy, the current study adopted the view
that there are infinite number of VSs and hence the number of levels of visual literacy.
From the variation in the degree of difficulty, the study showed that there are nonvisualization
and visualization type difficulties which contribute to the differences in
visual literacy levels between Biochemistry students. In addition to this, the current study
showed that visual literacy in the MLS can be presented through a taxonomy. Such a
taxonomy can be used to determine the level of each VS, its name and definition, typical
difficulties found in the MLS as well as the visualization stage at which each skill is
performed. Furthermore, this taxonomy can be used to design models, assess students’
visual literacy, identify and inform the remediation of students’ visualization difficulties.
While the study has successfully defined the nature of visual literacy for the MLS and
presented visual literacy in a taxonomy, more work is required to further understand
visual literacy for the MLS, a field where visual literacy is very prevalent.
Description
Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
Keywords
Visual literacy., Visualization., Biochemistry--Charts, diagrams, etc., Three-dimensional test of visualization skills., Models and modelling in science education., Biochemistry--Study and teaching., Visual literacy--Study and teaching., Molecular biology--Study and teaching., Charts, diagrams, etc., Theses--Biochemistry.