In academic contexts texts are the primary medium for acquiring disciplinary knowledge. The effects of a particular text structure, the refutational, were examined in this study. A refutation text is a text that acknowledges students’ alternative conceptions about a topic, directly refutes them, and introduces scientific conceptions as viable alternatives. Refutation text is considered as a powerful resource for science learning, which very often implies the revision of inaccurate ideas about scientific phenomena. Specifically, through the methodology of eye movements we addressed the open issue whether the refutation text effect encompasses a series of sub-processes with different time courses, which take place on different parts of the text and at different stages of the reading process. Forty undergraduates were randomly assigned to a different reading condition, according to a 2 (text: refutation, non-refutation) x 2 (topic: tides, Darwinian theory of evolution) within-subject design. As hypothesized, results showed that, regardless of the topic, participants made shorter first-pass fixations while reading the refutation text. Concurrently, they made longer looks-back and looks-from on the whole refutation text than on the non-refutation text. In addition, readers devoted shorter first-pass fixations to the metatexts in the refutation text. At the same time, refutation metatexts were backtracked (looks-back) for longer. In addition, the information provided by the scientific segments was re-fixated more while reading the metatexts in the refutation text (looks-from). Finally, refutation-text readers outperformed non-refutation text readers in learning the new scientific concepts.

Eye-Movement Analysis for a Process Approach to the Refutation Text Effect: Where and When it Occurs during Reading

ARIASI, NICOLA;MASON, LUCIA
2011

Abstract

In academic contexts texts are the primary medium for acquiring disciplinary knowledge. The effects of a particular text structure, the refutational, were examined in this study. A refutation text is a text that acknowledges students’ alternative conceptions about a topic, directly refutes them, and introduces scientific conceptions as viable alternatives. Refutation text is considered as a powerful resource for science learning, which very often implies the revision of inaccurate ideas about scientific phenomena. Specifically, through the methodology of eye movements we addressed the open issue whether the refutation text effect encompasses a series of sub-processes with different time courses, which take place on different parts of the text and at different stages of the reading process. Forty undergraduates were randomly assigned to a different reading condition, according to a 2 (text: refutation, non-refutation) x 2 (topic: tides, Darwinian theory of evolution) within-subject design. As hypothesized, results showed that, regardless of the topic, participants made shorter first-pass fixations while reading the refutation text. Concurrently, they made longer looks-back and looks-from on the whole refutation text than on the non-refutation text. In addition, readers devoted shorter first-pass fixations to the metatexts in the refutation text. At the same time, refutation metatexts were backtracked (looks-back) for longer. In addition, the information provided by the scientific segments was re-fixated more while reading the metatexts in the refutation text (looks-from). Finally, refutation-text readers outperformed non-refutation text readers in learning the new scientific concepts.
2011
14th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction "Education for a Global Networked Society"
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/3033907
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