Articles:Eye-Tracking Students’ Attention to PowerPoint Photographs in a Science Education Setting
From unthinkMedia
Contents |
Photographic Classifications in Textbooks
Pozzer and Roth (2003) suggested that photographs in textbooks can be classified into four categories. These classifications are extremely helpful in determining the degree of attention a photograph should theoretically receive from a student.
Decorative photographs
Don't have a caption or reference to them in the text.
“They introduce color, may provide for certain aesthetics, but lack informational function for the individual who does not already know what the subsequent text is intended to teach” (p. 1099).
Illustrative photographs
Offer a caption, however are not referenced in the text and do not supply additional information.
Explanatory photographs
This photos are, “with captions that provide an explanation of or a classification of what is represented in the photographs” (p. 1101).
Complementary photographs
These photographs are directly referenced in the text and with their captions add new information that is not found in the main body of text.
Differences Between Textbook and PowerPoint
- due to the limited space:
- there is not delineation between what could be classified as a caption and the main text.
- authors are forced to choose carefully what words and pictures are chosen
- some authors will create text-only PowerPoint presentations while others will create graphic-intense and text-light presentations
- ability to add audio narration to accompany the text and photographs
Research Questions
- Could eye-tracking technology help to differentiate how students attend to photographs that would be classified differently according to the Pozzer and Roth framework?
- Based on delivery method, a PowerPoint presentation either with or without audio narration, is there a difference in how students attend to these photographs?
- Do students rarely attend to the photograph regardless of the level of its classification?
Results
- Students attended to the Decorative and Complementary photographs differently
- (PowerPoint without narration) the general trend was to sample the title, text, and photograph before finally focusing on the text (zone 2) by the sixth fixation.
- (PowerPoint with audio narration) this trend was less focused. There was not a clear movement over time towards the text’ instead, a continued ar- ticulation between the text and other elements was seen through the fixation sequence. In addition, there were more fixations on noninformative parts of the slide (zone 4).
- narration had little effect on how students attended to the different classifications of photographs in the first 5 seconds. Over the course of the entire time on the slide, however, there was a clear effect due to narration.
- narration caused students to spend greater time attending to both types of photographs. This was likely due to the fact that students with the narration had ample time to examine features on the slide as they listened to the narration.
Reference
Slykhuis, Wiebe, and Annetta Eye-Tracking Students’ Attention to PowerPoint Photographs in a Science Education Setting Journal of Science Education and Technology, Vol. 14, Nos. 5/6, December 2005 (C � 2005)
