Presents an activity in which students use a technique employed by blind or seeing-impaired students that incorporates mental imagery to visualize the theorem about central and inscribed angles subtended by congruent arcs in a circle. Provides an alternative proof proposed by students. (MDH)

Describes two memory-enhancing techniques, visualization and concrete reconstruction, that have been successful in counseling adult survivors of sexual abuse. Includes suggested implementations, case examples, and implications for incorporating memory techniques into counseling process. Describes various risk factors involved in using these…

Discusses the role of visualization of information in learning. Theorizes that the comprehension of visualizations is a process of structure mapping between a visuo-spatial configuration and a mental model. Tests the model and finds differences in the use of text and picture information to answer different kinds of text questions. (DSK)

Defines spatial structuring as the mental operation of constructing an organization or form for an object/set of objects. Examines in detail students' structuring and enumeration of two-dimensional rectangular arrays of squares. Concludes that many students do not see row-by-column structure. Describes various levels of sophistication in students'…

Discusses science mapping in the general context of information visualization and reviews attempts to construct maps of science using citation data, focusing on the use of co-citation clusters. Reports new work on a dataset of 36,00 documents using simplified methods for ordination and nesting maps hierarchically. Also discusses virtual-reality…

In engineering and visual arts, visualization and manipulation of objects is necessary. Describes effective factors on performance which include spatial skills. Describes a project that is designed to increase engineering students' visualization skills. Lists objectives, hardware, and software requirements for the project and considers long term…

Investigates qualitative differences in prekindergarten children's visual representations of sound. Reports finding differences in representations among three developmental groups. The more advanced groups associated visual materials with sound and borrowed from other domains to create analogies for sound. Discusses connections to previous…

Studies qualitative changes in preschool children's invented notations following extensive musical instruction. Reports that the invented notations of 50% of the children changed after music instruction, showing a progression from scribbles to enactive to melodic. Notes that no results about why notations changed can be drawn from this descriptive…

Discusses the role of information visualization in modeling and representing intellectual structures associated with scientific disciplines and visualizes the domain of computer graphics based on bibliographic data from author cocitation patterns. Highlights include author cocitation maps, citation time lines, animation of a high-dimensional…

Contends that students must learn to adopt a lateral way of thinking, which generates multiple solutions, to resolve their problems. Offers examples of heuristics (plans of attack) that students can use to better approach their problems, such as: visualizing the situation, exploring ideas, choosing a strategy, finding a solution, and checking to…

Introduces a teaching instrument called The Big Picture which is a student-generated overview of a unit. Provides a chart of units and summaries for The Big Picture. (YDS)

Describes a pregraphics course for freshman engineering majors weak in three-dimensional spatial visualization skills. Freshman students scoring less than 60% correct on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R) were counseled into the course. Gain scores for students after the course on the PSVT:R were shown to be statistically…

Explains instructional syntax analysis, a tool to demonstrate and analyze the interaction and communication between the computer instructional system and the computer user. Focuses on two areas of technology-based instruction: modeling/visualization and online learning. Discusses the rating of interactivity on scales of immersion and of…

Outlines the findings of the Science Teacher Training in an Information Society (STTIS) project concerned with describing the possible difficulties pupils have when reading science textbook pictures on energy. Concludes that reading science textbook pictures is not trivial for pupils and that teachers need to spend time and effort talking through…

Focuses on images of energy that may help to construct key scientific concepts. Analyzes interpretations given by students of documents containing images evoking ideas that are seldom visually explained within a theoretical semiotic frame. Confirms the utility of this frame and suggests some abilities needed for students to correctly interpret…