Abstract

 
 
 In the field of biochemistry, the use of external representations such as static diagrams and animations has increased rapidly in recent years. However, their effectiveness as instructional tools can be hindered if students lack the visual literacy and cognitive skills necessary for processing and interpreting such representations. We aimed to identify and assess visualisation skills necessary for effective processing of external representations in biochemistry. We used a modified Bloom’s taxonomy to identify the cognitive skills essential for optimal visual literacy, and designed probes based on those skills to develop a test instrument. Student responses to the probes were scored and processed with the Rasch model. This approach enabled us to rate the degree of difficulty of each visualisation skill on a linear logit scale, and to generate a person–item map to measure biochemistry students’ level of visual literacy. The results showed that the identified visualisation skills could be measured reliably, and the Rasch model was effective both for ranking the skills according to level of difficulty and for estimating a student’s relative level of visual literacy.
 
 
 
 
 Significance: 
 
 
 
 Addresses a recurring problem in biochemistry and similar fields.
 Identifies relevant skills to inform teaching and learning in biochemistry.
 
 
 
Highlights
Bloom’s taxonomy is widely accepted as the golden standard for determining learning objectives
The results showed that the identified visualisation skills could be measured reliably, and the Rasch model was effective both for ranking the skills according to level of difficulty and for estimating a student’s relative level of visual literacy
Research shows that a lack of visual literacy (VL) is one of the major factors leading to poor content understanding among students.[7]
Summary
Bloom’s taxonomy is widely accepted as the golden standard for determining learning objectives. In its purest form, Bloom’s taxonomy addresses cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains, and can be applied to various competencies. Competencies include mathematics literacy, science literacy and visual literacy (VL), with VL being a key competency in learning biochemistry. According to Mnguni[1], the visualisation process has three main stages: internalisation, conceptualisation and externalisation. In this model, internalisation refers to the process in which sense organs (such as the eyes) work with the brain to absorb information from the world (i.e. external to the body). Externalisation is the production of external visual models by way of expressing cognitive mental schema
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