Learner Articulation in an Immersive Visualization Environment

Abstract

Learner articulation, described variously in the literature on cognition and instruction as self-explanation or self-directed generative summarization, contributes to new learning through the process of combining ideas in the course of expressing them. In this observational study, we examined movement, gesture and verbal explanation as 14 undergraduate engineering students explored in an immersive visualization display to understand concepts in basic fluid dynamics. Data from user videos, interviews, and a 3-D graphical tracking tool were analyzed. Approach, observational, and perspectival ‘moves ’ were in evidence to support articulation. Students ’ dietic, iconic and metaphoric gestures combined with their verbalizations to achieve generative articulations regarding the content. Accuracy of articulations and system features remains an open question