Abstract
This study examines the role of virtual reality (VR) in the promotion of writing with greater complexity and lexical density. Using a combination of neuroimaging and traditional measures, the author characterizes differences in writing complexity and lexical density scores across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by a textbook reading, textbook reading followed by VR, and textbook reading alone. Middle school students recruited from a rural middle school in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States responded to two prompts related to science content found in VR environments and a textbook. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual environment prior to responding to the writing prompts would enhance both argumentative and summative writing products, when compared to participants who only had access to the textbook experiences. Participants who were exposed to the VR environment then had access to a textbook demonstrated significantly greater writing complexity and lexical density scores than those who had VR alone, or access to the text alone.
TopIntroduction
Science education research has sought to understand and develop pedagogical approaches with supports that facilitate 21st Century skills such as critical thinking and written communication related to science (Chu et al., 2017). Of the myriad of options available to educators in the classroom, one of approaches that has been consistently in use in science education is the use of laboratories or activities illustrating specific learning points. However, with the specific illustration of a point there are limitations to the use of laboratories. The limitations arise particularly when the laboratories and activities do not allow individual student exploration or variations in the laboratory outcomes. Activities and laboratories without exploration or variations in outcomes are considered rote hands-on activities. Researchers in fields such as neuroscience and learning sciences, have argued that it is necessary to focus less on rote laboratory outcomes and more on the creation of variable outcome experiences which then must be communicated and argued. The variability in outcomes allows students to collect evidence to substantiate claims. The writing to learn aspect occurs as students develop written arguments and analyze claims and evidence to construct scientific understanding and explanation. (Berland & Reiser, 2009; Abersek, 2017). Writing to learn promotes learning through student engagement with authentic contexts and the subsequent explanation of observed phenomena using precise disciplinary language and critique of ideas (Chen et al., 2013). Explanations through writing engage several cognitive systems related to long-term memory, working memory, subordinate functions within working memory such as critical thinking, and other superordinate cognitive systems such as executive function (Leinonen, Keune, Veermans, & Toikkanen, 2016). In short, writing to learn places written scientific communications in the role of a tool to facilitate learning of content within authentic contexts. With the apparent importance of writing to learn in science, the authors of this study are interest in understanding the relationship between aspects of modal presentation and the promotion of writing and critical thinking (Murphy, Rowe, Ramani, & Silverman, 2014).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Embodied Cognition: Cognition is biased and deeply dependent on an independent agent’s body state and external environment.
Cognitive Demand: The interaction of multiple task specific cognitive systems measured through the hemodynamic response of neural tissue.
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent Signal (BOLD): Signal alterations identified during fNIRS imaging that indicate increases or decreases in brain activity related to blood oxygen levels occurring during task completion.
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS): A non-invasive neuroimaging technology, making use of light in the near infrared spectrum to obtain visualizations of blood flow throughout the brain.
Optode: An optical sensor that measures specific wavelengths of light reflected from a substance.
Virtual Reality: Virtual reality is a system consisting of a computer and headset with user interfaces which create a 360-degree three-dimensional environment to supply the effect of immersion and interaction.
Summative Writing: Writing intended to convey information without interpretation, deductions, and opinions about an observation or experience.
Argumentative Writing: Writing intended to persuade another person of your viewpoint.
Hemodynamic Response: Hemodynamic response is the response of neural tissue oxygen use during the completion of specific tasks and ties to specific areas of the brain.