Abstract :
This paper presents the development and evaluation of a web-based lesson—
Lesson Rainbow. This lesson features multiple representations (MRs), which
purposefully deliver concepts in relation to distinctive disciplinary subject areas
through story-based animations that are closely related to learners’ life
experiences. The researchers selected 58 2nd-year junior high school students
as the participants (32 males and 26 females). A quasi-experimental method
together with semi-structured interviews was utilised. This research project
was intended to investigate students’ conceptual progress, and to evaluate the
use of MRs and of situated learning components in the design of Lesson
Rainbow. The statistical results indicated that: (1) students’ science concepts
significantly increased (
t
=
3.84,
p
<
0.01) through the use of Lesson Rainbow,
and (2) students thought that the use of MRs in this web-based lesson was an
effective pedagogical tool inasmuch as it allows for the learning of specific
theoretical viewpoints in addition to the necessary background information.
Lesson Rainbow employing MRs helps learners to understand the meanings
of, and interrelationships between, different kinds of external representations.
This kind of design facilitates their understanding of the correspondence
between abstract symbolic expressions and real-world situations.
