The Effects of Format of Synthesizer on Conceptual Learning. IDD&E Working Paper No. 13 [microform] / Lois McLean and Others.
One of the important components of the elaboration theory (Reigeluth, 1979) is the synthesizer, which provides information to relate and integrate a set of concepts and which can appear in different formats. This study investigated the effectiveness of three formats of post-instruction synthesizer o...
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| Format: | Microfilm Book |
| Language: | English |
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1983.
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| Summary: | One of the important components of the elaboration theory (Reigeluth, 1979) is the synthesizer, which provides information to relate and integrate a set of concepts and which can appear in different formats. This study investigated the effectiveness of three formats of post-instruction synthesizer on student recall of definitions of concepts and recall of relationships among those concepts. The subjects were 47 high school students who were randomly assigned to five groups: (1) no synthesizer (instruction only); (2) visual synthesizer (tree-chart diagram); (3) verbal synthesizer (written prose); (4) visual plus verbal synthesizer; and (5) control (posttest only). The four treatment groups simultaneously viewed a general-to-detailed slide-tape presentation on microcomputer system parts. A 41-item, short-answer posttest was administered to the no-synthesizer group immediately and to the other three experimental groups following brief study of their assigned synthesizers. Although no significant differences were found between the treatment groups on remembering definitions, the diagram synthesizer group was significantly better at remembering the relationships than the verbal and no-synthesis groups, and the diagram plus verbal synthesis group was significantly better than the no-synthesis group. Contrary to the three hypotheses tested, these results suggest that instruction for parts-conceptual relationships should use a visual-only synthesizer format. This report includes examples of different synthesizers as well as five references. (Author/RP) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED289462. |
| Physical Description: | 27 pages. |
| Audience: | Researchers. |
| Reproduction Note: | Microfiche. |
| Action Note: | committed to retain |