Processing across verbal and visual modalities in science education: individual differences and the role of socioeconomic status

By conceptualizing science learning through the bioecological systems theory, understanding science learning requires research investigating the person characteristics, proximal processes, and the context of students during a developmentally significant time. Preparing students with the knowledge and strategies to think critically about science requires an understanding of how the context in which they learn impacts learning. The current study investigated students’ (N = 39, Mage= 10.18 years, 58.97% Male) learning of a human anatomy concept through pages presented in either the verbal or visual modality and then assessed in both modalities. Investigation into the proximal processes of student interaction between the learning modality (verbal and visual) and assessment modality (verbal and visual) was conducted through examining the cognitive strategies used for students to translate across and within these modalities while also considering larger contexts of students’ socioeconomic and person characteristics. Analyses demonstrated a marginally significant (p<0.1) impact of students’ self-concept about their abilities in science, variations in frequency of cognitive strategies used when answering questions in varying modalities, and a significant interaction between socioeconomic status, learning modality, and assessment modality on science assessment score (p<0.05). Findings from this study suggest a critical and thorough investigation how we assess students’ science learning and reevaluate the often-found SES differences in student science achievement measures given the context of the modality of the measure.