"Students' Understandings of Multiple Representations"
Stacey Lowery Bretz, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Miami University, is a leader in chemistry education research and has developed tools that measure meaningful learning by focusing on cognitive, affective, and psychomotor dimensions of learning. Currently, Bretz is an American Council on Education Fellow working in the UIUC Office of the Chancellor in this academic year.
Bretz will share how learning in STEM courses requires students to become fluent in the symbolic language of the particular discipline and developing expertise requires that students move beyond manipulating symbols to creating explanations using particulate models of matter for observations in the laboratory. Failure to accurately interpret and connect these multiple representations of matter creates challenges for students when learning. Findings regarding students’ reasoning with multiple representations and the implications for assessment will be presented using examples from multiple chemistry courses.
