Learning the Concept of Function With Dynamic Visualizations

Abstract

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In this paper we present a laboratory experiment in which 157 secondary-school students learned the concept of function with either static representations or dynamic visualizations. We used two different versions of dynamic visualization in order to evaluate whether interactivity had an impact on learning outcome. In the group learning with a linear dynamic visualization, the students could only start an animation and run it from the beginning to the end. In the group using an interactive dynamic visualization, the students controlled the flow of the dynamic visualization with their mouse. This resulted in students learning significantly better with dynamic visualizations than with static representations. However, there was no significant difference in learning with linear or interactive dynamic visualizations. Nor did we observe an aptitude–treatment interaction between visual-spatial ability and learning with either dynamic visualizations or static representations.

Keywords

• concept of function
• covariation
• dyna-linking
• animation
• dynamic visualization
• static representation