ERIC Number: EJ1240809
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jan
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Setting up Chemistry Demonstrations According to the Left-to-Right Principle: An Eye-Movement-Pattern-Based Analysis
Nehring, Andreas; Busch, Sebastian
Journal of Chemical Education, v97 n1 p275-282 Jan 2020
Although demonstrations play a central role in teaching and learning chemistry, the effects of concrete setup principles have rarely been subject to systematic empirical studies. According to the left-to-right principle, the educator should begin with the first step of a reaction in the upper left part of the setup and then place the following apparatus in the lower right. Using data from an experimental eye-tracking study on students' visual attention that was published in the "Journal of Chemical Education," we reanalyzed eye-tracking in order to find out whether eye-movements are influenced in a manner that supports a setup according to the left-to-right principle. On the basis of a pattern analysis, the results show that left-to-right patterns generally appear significantly more often within the data than right-to-left patterns. Although the left-to-right demonstration does not seem to systematically include more left-to-right patterns, it is associated with a decrease of right-to-left patterns. Accordingly, a right-to-left setup seems to add more eye-movements that do not follow the logic of the demonstration. We discuss these findings with regard to their importance for educators and new perspectives on future chemistry demonstrations research.
Descriptors: Eye Movements, Teaching Methods, Science Instruction, Chemistry, Visual Perception, Attention, Correlation, Educational Principles, High School Students, Laboratory Experiments, Demonstrations (Educational)
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A