Students’ reception of two alternative arrangements of mathematical symbols and words: Differences in focus and text navigation

Abstract

To engage with specialized subject content, students must develop adequate reading skills. In mathematics, this includes to integrate information from different semiotic resources. This study elucidates how differences in the structural connections between mathematical symbols and written language in mathematics texts can affect the reading process. With the help of eye-tracking techniques, we investigated differences in focus and navigation when 15-year-olds read task texts in two distinct designs: a traditional design with written language presented in lines and all connections based on semantics; and a design including a graphic emphasizing links between symbols and explanations. While the graphic design was found to facilitate fast interpretation of the symbol–language connections, the traditional design seemed to encourage global reading, involving more text parts. When designing texts for mathematics learning, structural connections may be chosen to adapt texts to various student groups and purposes.