Projects / Programmes
Optimization of cognitive (learning) effectiveness of didactic text
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.01.01 |
Social sciences |
Educational studies |
Pedagogy |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S270 |
Social sciences |
Pedagogy and didactics |
knowledge, text, didactic, comprehension, information
Researchers (5)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Many experimental studies have demonstrated that by improving a particular feature or characteristic of a didactic text we obtain a considerable increase in readers' (pupils') information recall and comprehension. However, this has only been demonstrated for a small number of textual characteristics, for example for readability of didactic texts measured by readability formulas, for the presence of abstract words in texts, for the degree of nominalisation of sentences and the like. It is still unclear whether we can successfully use a number of partial research results concerning individual characteristics of didactic text in a more comprehensive manner. In other words, it is unclear whether we can combine different segments of that knowledge in such a complex revision of an original didactic text that would finally prove to be significantly more effective than the original version. Can a quasi-experimental study demonstrate that a systematic, research-results-based revision of an intuition-based original text can lead to optimizing the cognitive effectiveness expressed in information recall and comprehension measures? Is it possible to estimate the effect a revision of a single text characteristic has on the overall result of didactic text revisions? How can we transform research findings into standards for didactic text production, i.e. standards that would give directions to textbook authors, those directions being a function of pupils' age as well as of subject matter the texbooks are meant to convey?
A solution of the research problems just cited will enable us to construct a model of complex intervention into the structure of didactic texts, a model based on up-to-now produced scientific knowledge of how various text characteristics influence reading and learning from the texts. Standards will be derived from that model that could direct revision and evaluation of didactic texts produced for various pupils' ages and school subjects. Showing the way to optimizing a didactic text the model will serve as a point of departure for constructing standards and criteria for textbook production and evaluation. Finally we aim at writing a handbook that will contain an overview of the result of the relevant research in the area (in a simplified and operational version) as well as procedures and criteria for didactic text production and evaluation.
The central idea of the research project is in the following: Several groups of pupils will read a series of didactic texts – 4 original textual fragments taken from Slovenian geography school books and 12 revised versions of those fragments. Revisions will follow directions stemming from various types of research into the relationship between text characteristics and cognitive (learning) effectiveness of texts. Pupils' information recall and comprehension will be measured.
Significance for science
The main result is of course in providing new knowledge of how to optimize cognitive effectiveness of didactic texts that are used in schools. We have identified the procedures of text revision that improve considerably that effectiveness. All the revised text fragments gave better results on the tests of knowledge. We keep records of the procedures used, so we now know which procedures of text revision give positive results. Up to now there has been very little reasearch into the relation between didactic text structure and text's cognitive potential. Several disciplines – psycholinguistics, cognitive sciences, text linguistics – have done some normative didactic text modelling. Even fewer were experiments and quasi-experimental studies in this area. A few researchers have been involved in the kind of activity we have carried out. However, their methodology forced them to make attempts at matching the groups of students, taking into account intelligence, previously attained knowledge etc. That kind of approach cannot provide results that are really reliable. Our main approach that was based on the idea of permutation of groups of students and text versions has not been in use so far. And it is precisely this kind of approach that gives the most reliable results. What was also innovative in our project was the fact that the didactic text revision was not done intuitively but based on explicit rules and procedures. In other word every intervention into the text structure was controlled and described in details. So we got data on cause – effect relationships. The procedures we used can be (in a quasi-algorithmic way) used in future text revisions. We elaborated a list of procedures that are easy to control and can be used as basic instrument by all those – experts in the field, textbook writers etc. – who would like to develop cognitively effective expository texts or evaluate school textbooks. We have been the forst to develop analytical tools that can serve to identify implicite information the didactic texts convey to students as well as to identify the bridging inferences the student has to make in order to 'fill' the gaps in the text structure. This is an important step towards creating a list of standard procedures for the quality didactic text production and offers a new insight into the structure of the didactic text processing.
Significance for the country
The previous research has showed that many of the textbooks used in Slovenian schools are characterised by many weaknesses in the structure as well as the content. For example, many sections of the texts subjected to analysis were found incoherent. That alone can hinder the process of learning to a considerable degree. There has been very little research, in Slovenia as well as in other countries, that would provide information on how to optimise the level of nominalisation for different age groups of students, the readabilty of the text, the amount of implicit information, the number of bridging inferences the students have to make in order to fill the gaps in the text structure, the text's considerateness, the structure of argumentation etc. Those who write school textbooks have to rely on their intuition and skills. The expert bodies that are sipposed to evaluate the textbooks dispose of no instrument that would enable them to do it in an unbiased way. The results we obtained form a solid knowledge basis for textbook production and evaluation. They provide quality criteria that can be used by the textbook developers who work in Slovenian publishing houses. In the beginning of each school year teachers have to make select textbooks from the many products offered in the market. A simplified version of the criteria we developed in the project can easily be used by the teacher in order them to distinguish between those products. That can have an important impact on the learning process. We have proved that normally low achieving students who use a well elaborated didactic text attain as much knowledge as high achieving students who use a didactic text containg the same but less elaborated information. This result alone testifies to the importance the quality of the didactic text has for the learning process.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2008,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2008,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
