Problem of Practice Students seem confused about instructions and classroom expectations. Often students will speak with peers during instruction which leads to only a few number of students participating in discussions and answering questions. During individual work time students will speak with peers or be off task sharpening pencils or wondering around the room. When reviewing student work after individual work time I find worksheets with only a couple questions completed.
Inquire Question What happens to engagement when I provide illustrations and drawings as part of my instruction?
Demographics Whittier Elementary School. Both dual language first grade classes. 23 students in each class.
Review of the Research A study was conducted addressing student benefits of observing an instructor draw diagrams during a lesson (Fiorella, 2015). It looked into how the act of observing the dynamic creation of static visuals makes use of effective instructional methods that are not put to use when students only view static visuals. Four experiment were conducted where participants viewed a short lesson about how the Doppler Effect works. Some students viewed already-drawn diagrams while listening to a verbal explanation, whereas other students listened to the same explanation while viewing the instructor actually draw the diagrams. Data from the four experiments showed that observing the instructor make drawings while orally explaining a topic promoted student learning, and that there could be benefits associated with the presence of a human instructor’s hand during the lesson. Research on using visual aids has shown that cartooning can be used as a form of correcting negative behavior (Artwood, 1999). When cartooning each picture should show what people look like performing actions with objects in space. According to this source, some students need to see themselves doing the activity to really understand the appropriate ways to behave. Visual aids are the basis for viconics which are visual language- based rules (Artwood, 2002). When using viconics the teacher creates an event- based or rich language picture to depict a story or explain a concept. Visual aids, ranging from drawing to actual picture images, can be very powerful tools in classroom management when showing students what is expected of them (Dearborn, 2011). Using visual aid strategies tend to lower kids’ stress that can come from unclear procedures, and can result in virtually eliminating raised teacher voices.
Study Design I examined both classes separately. The control group (class A) received only verbal instructions with no visual aids. The experimental group (class B) received verbal instructions as well as drawn out instructions and visual aids they could reference when released to work individually.
Findings When released to work individually 8 of the 23 students in class A were unsure of what the task was and how to perform it. They stood around the classroom and did not participate in the activity and were off task. Only one student in class B was confused about the instructions but his classmates quickly referenced the visual aid and got him back on task. Students were actively involved in the activity and were able to smoothly run through transitions.
Implications Students benefit from both verbal and visual instructions. There were many students that understood instructions when they were just given verbally. However, explaining instructions by modeling them through visual aids helped with efficiency in the classroom and increased overall engagement.
Citations Artwood, E. L., & Brown, M. M. (1999). A Guide to Cartooning and Flowcharting. Portland, OR: APRICOT, Inc. Artwood, E. L., & Brown, M. M. (2002). Balanced Literacy Phonics, Viconics, Kinesics. Tigard, OR: APRICOT, Inc. Dearborn, G., Lambert, M., & Smith, R. (2011). Picture This! Visuals and Rubrics to Teach Procedures, Save Your Voice, and Love Your Students. Fairfax, CA: Conscious Teaching. Fiorella, L., Richard, M. (2015). Effects of Observing the Instructor Draw Diagrams on Learning From Multimedia Messages. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 108 (4). Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/?&fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/edu0000065