Teachers’ use of visual representations in the science classroom
Abstract
In the current science education literature, most of the attention has focused
on understanding the impact visual representations in textbooks and
multimedia materials have on students and their learning, but very few
studies have focused on teachers’ use of these graphics in the classroom.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how seven high school science
teachers use visual representations in their teaching. A case study approach
was used in this research. First, mini-cases were developed to examine the
research question from the participants’ perspective; then, a cross-case
analysis was used to examine the similarities and differences among
participants to develop an overarching case in order to understand the
factors involved with teachers’ use of visual representations. The findings of
this study indicate that course content, student characteristics, and resource
availability affect how teachers select and use graphics in their science
courses.