Graphically representing covariational functional situations in an interactive embodied digital learning environment

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate how students graphically represent qualitative and quantitative aspects of co-varying quantities in an embodied digital learning environment that provides feedback in the form of an animation showing what kind of motion their graph represents and how this feedback helped them to overcome typical graphing mistakes. Fifty-nine 11-year-old students participated in an intervention programme including exploring co-varying quantities in real-life motion scenarios. In this context, they worked on four tasks that required them to represent distance-time scenarios. Results showed that the embodied learning environment facilitated students to graphically represent motion scenarios. Most of the students provided a correct graph in their first attempt or after revising it based on the provided feedback, managed to overcome typical mistakes and coordinated the variation of the involved measures. This study identified categories of how students used the provided feedback as well as express their related covariational reasoning.