The relation of student’s diagram comprehension, knowledge and cognitive activities while studying mosses metagenesis diagram

Abstract

The students’ success in understanding the visual representation such as diagram, can be determined by cognitive activities that occurs in working memory. One of the diagrams that are abstract and difficult to understand while studying Biological material is plant metagenesis diagram. The aim of the study is to reveal the types of cognitive activities that relate to knowledge and diagram comprehension while students read mosses metagenesis diagram. Twenty five Biology education students completed mosses metagenesis knowledge test and diagram comprehension test (m = 48,9). Verbal data were collected by Think Aloud Protocol to find several types of cognitive activities while students read mosses metagenesis diagram. Four types of cognitive activities that found and correlated strongly with diagram comprehension, were 1) identifying of image detail (r = 0.917; p <0.01), 2) symbols interpretation (r = 0.862; p <0.01), 3 ) activating prior knowledge (r = 0.703; p <0.01), and 4) inference (r = 0.773; p <0.01). These results indicate the high frequency of identifying image detail, symbols interpretation, activation prior knowledge, and inference contributing to the high understanding of mosses metagenesis diagram. This study also reveals that students’ knowledge has contributed highly to students’ diagrams comprehension.