Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions

This study examines students’ visual behaviors when they tackle two types of synthesis problems, sequential and simultaneous problems. Sequential synthesis tasks can be solved by applying pertinent concepts consecutively, whereas simultaneous synthesis tasks require concurrent application of multipl...

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Autores principales:	Bashirah Ibrahim, Lin Ding
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Physical Society 2021
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c7ea4e010af34bfeaa4719fa0aec256d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c7ea4e010af34bfeaa4719fa0aec256d2021-12-02T14:17:09ZSequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.0101262469-9896https://doaj.org/article/c7ea4e010af34bfeaa4719fa0aec256d2021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttp://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010126http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010126https://doaj.org/toc/2469-9896This study examines students’ visual behaviors when they tackle two types of synthesis problems, sequential and simultaneous problems. Sequential synthesis tasks can be solved by applying pertinent concepts consecutively, whereas simultaneous synthesis tasks require concurrent application of multiple concepts. Twenty-two students from an introductory calculus-based physics course participated in the study. We used an eye-tracker to record the students’ eye movements when they silently reflected on how to solve the problems and subsequently when they talked aloud their problem-solving strategies. We found that the students made more gaze transitions between text and diagram for the simultaneous problems than for the sequential ones. However, they spent more time looking at the diagram and making within-diagram eye transitions in the sequential tasks than in the simultaneous tasks. Further, most students invoked two concepts to solve the sequential tasks but only one for the simultaneous tasks. These findings indicate that the students made less effort to link text and diagram in solving sequential problems but frequently attempted to integrate information within each diagram. The pattern for the simultaneous problems appeared to be reversed. Our results suggest that different types of synthesis (i.e., sequential and simultaneous) may differentially influence the ways students handle tasks. As suggested by the eye-tracker data and confirmed by the participants’ verbal explanations, students tend to divide the situation in sequential problems into subtasks but treat simultaneous problems as a single-step task.Bashirah IbrahimLin DingAmerican Physical SocietyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691PhysicsQC1-999ENPhysical Review Physics Education Research, Vol 17, Iss 1, p 010126 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Physics QC1-999 Bashirah Ibrahim Lin Ding Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
description	This study examines students’ visual behaviors when they tackle two types of synthesis problems, sequential and simultaneous problems. Sequential synthesis tasks can be solved by applying pertinent concepts consecutively, whereas simultaneous synthesis tasks require concurrent application of multiple concepts. Twenty-two students from an introductory calculus-based physics course participated in the study. We used an eye-tracker to record the students’ eye movements when they silently reflected on how to solve the problems and subsequently when they talked aloud their problem-solving strategies. We found that the students made more gaze transitions between text and diagram for the simultaneous problems than for the sequential ones. However, they spent more time looking at the diagram and making within-diagram eye transitions in the sequential tasks than in the simultaneous tasks. Further, most students invoked two concepts to solve the sequential tasks but only one for the simultaneous tasks. These findings indicate that the students made less effort to link text and diagram in solving sequential problems but frequently attempted to integrate information within each diagram. The pattern for the simultaneous problems appeared to be reversed. Our results suggest that different types of synthesis (i.e., sequential and simultaneous) may differentially influence the ways students handle tasks. As suggested by the eye-tracker data and confirmed by the participants’ verbal explanations, students tend to divide the situation in sequential problems into subtasks but treat simultaneous problems as a single-step task.
format	article
author	Bashirah Ibrahim Lin Ding
author_facet	Bashirah Ibrahim Lin Ding
author_sort	Bashirah Ibrahim
title	Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
title_short	Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
title_full	Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
title_fullStr	Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
title_full_unstemmed	Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions
title_sort	sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: a comparison of students’ gaze transitions
publisher	American Physical Society
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/c7ea4e010af34bfeaa4719fa0aec256d
work_keys_str_mv	AT bashirahibrahim sequentialandsimultaneoussynthesisproblemsolvingacomparisonofstudentsgazetransitions AT linding sequentialandsimultaneoussynthesisproblemsolvingacomparisonofstudentsgazetransitions
_version_	1718391633268965376

Sequential and simultaneous synthesis problem solving: A comparison of students’ gaze transitions

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