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The thesis comprises three studies. The purposes of these three studies were: (1) to explore how the perspectives of description taken affected students of different grades to construct spatial situation model, (2) to explore how the use of external representation affected students who read description of alternative perspective to construct spatial situation model, and (3) to compare the cognitive processes and contents of spatial situation model of expert students and novice students when they were reading spatial information. Among these three studies, StudyⅠand StudyⅡwere quantitative approach while StudyⅢwas qualitative approach. The instrument used in StudyⅠand StudyⅡ was "The Test of Ability to Construct the Spatial Situation Model" (TACSM), edited by the present researcher. The subjects of StudyⅠwere 457 fifth to seventh graders from Taipei County. In StudyⅠ, an experiment of 3×2 factorial between-subject design was adopted, with the "Grades" and "Perspectives of Description" as independent variables and "Scores of TACSM" as dependent variable. The subjects of StudyⅡwere 336 sixth graders from Taipei County. In StudyⅡ, an experiment of 3×2 factorial between-subject design was also undertaken, but with "Representation Groups" and "Perspectives of Description" as independent variables and "Scores of TACSM" as dependent variable. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze data thus obtained in these two studies. The participants of StudyⅢ were the six subjects who got highest scores and the six subjects who got lowest scores on TACSM in StudyⅠ.The protocols of the participants were transcribed and analyzed via typical qualitative approach. The main findings of these three studies were as follows: (1) The mean scores of "The Test of the Ability to Construct Spatial Situation Model" (TACSM) were significantly different among 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. The result of trend analysis showed that the linear trend was significant. (2) The mean score of TACSM for subjects who accepted "Route Type" perspective of description was significantly higher than those who accepted "Survey Type" perspective description. (3) The interaction effect between "Grades" and "Perspectives of Description" was not significant. With regard to the mean score of TACSM, the difference between two types of perspective of description did not change with grades. (4) The mean score of TACSM for subjects who used "Pictorial Representation" was significantly higher than those who used "Free Representation". However, whether or not the mean score for subjects who used "Pictorial Representation" was higher than those who used "None External Representation" needs further study. (5) The interaction effect between "Representation Groups" and "Perspectives of Description" was not significant. That is, the difference between scores caused by the perspectives of description did not change with the three group of representation. (6) The accuracy of construction of spatial situation model was related to whether the readers concretized the spatial situation model when they were reading, and also related to the referential framework the readers possessed. (7) When reading spatial information with different perspectives of description, the subjects showed differences both in their cognitive processes and in the contents of representation. At the end of this thesis, several suggestions for education and further studies were provided.
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