1. What is the Coherence Principle and its most
important constraints/criteria?
According
to Moreno and Mayer, “Students learn better when extraneous material is
excluded rather than included in multimedia explanations.” This is mostly due in part to the fact the
human’s . . . “capacities of the visual and auditory working memory are highly
limited.” (Mayer)
2. Describe and/or include one example of
successful and one example of unsuccessful attempts to apply the Coherence
Principle in actual instruction and training you have experienced, especially
as it might be implemented in PowerPoint-based instruction and training. Have
you ever seen this principle violated or abused? Identify the violations,
including citations as needed from your textbook.
I
recently taught a lesson about the Social Psychology concept of “Evaluation
Apprehension.” On the same slide with
the term evaluation apprehension I included a picture of a basketball player
who is an example of what evaluation apprehension can do and another image of a
different basketball player who is an example of someone who is resistant to
evaluation apprehension. My fear is that
when my students recall the term and images, they will remember both images as
being examples of evaluation apprehension.
I should have made two separate slides or not included the non-example
at all.
On
several occasions, I have used music, comics, or stories that are loosely
related to the topic to introduce a concept or to spice up a lesson. The mistake is that the music, comic, or
story is not an accurate example and it either distracts them from the main
idea or confuses them as to what the concept really means.
3. Discuss the relationship of the Coherence
Principle to other Multimedia Learning Principles examined thus far in your
readings.
Both
the contiguity principles reinforce the idea that essential words and
corresponding images should be on a slide in close proximity and at the same
time. (Mayer) I also think the modality principle is
designed to help the students focus on the important things that are being said
while they look at the image instead of trying to read and make sense of sentences
or paragraphs that are written on the slide. (Moreno & Mayer)
One
that I don’t recall reading or learning about yet that I think really goes hand
in hand with the coherence principle are the visual/auditory split attention
principles. If you have background sound
while you are narrating a slide or if you have overly complicated animation or
irrelevant visual prompts they can distract students and prevent them from
focusing on the key concepts and their explanations. (Mayer)
4. Discuss the relationship of the Coherence
Principle to fundamental theories of psychology as described by Clark &
Mayer in your textbook.
According
to Clark and Mayer many instructors attempt to justify their use of extraneous
sounds and images on the arousal theory.
“Arousal theory predicts that students will learn more from multimedia presentations
that contain interesting sounds and music than from multimedia presentations
without interesting sounds and music.” (Clark
& Mayer p. 156) Clark and Mayer
counter this theory by pointing out that our working memory has a limited
capacity and when our students focus in on the extraneous sounds, music, or
images they can’t focus what the instructor is saying or the main concept of
the lesson. They also added that a
subject needs to be interested in and of itself, no amount of extraneous
sounds, music, or images can make something more interesting that it actually
is. (Clark & Mayer. p. 156 &
161)
5. What do you personally like or dislike about
this principle? Present a coherent, informed opinion and explain why you hold
this opinion. Are there any limitations or qualifications of the principle
(caveats) which the authors did not consider and, if so, what are they?
I
like that this principle is based on a physiological limitation that most
humans have. We can only take in or
process so much information at any given time.
I like that it encourages teachers to be more deliberate in their
curriculum design and instruction. I
have tried to fight against this principle for much of my career and I have
paid the price. The most common
questions and comments I get are, “I don’t understand how that is an example or
illustration of what we are learning?” and “Where are we and what am I supposed
to be doing right now.”
What
I do dislike about it is the fact that there are songs, stories, and activities
I like to use in class even if they are not right on the mark and now I know
that not only are they not helping students learn, they are actually disrupting
student learning.
References:
Clark,
R. C., Mayer R. E. (2008). E-Learning and
the Science of Instruction, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Sanfrancisco CA.
Mayer, R. E. (1999). Multimedia aids to problem-solving
transfer. International Journal of Educational Research, 31(7), 611-623. (PDF file download)
Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2000). A learner-centered
approach to multimedia explanations: Deriving instructional design principles
from cognitive theory. Interactive Multimedia Electronic Journal of
Computer-Enhanced Learning, 2(2), 2004-07. Retrieved March 1, 2009 fromhttp://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2000/2/05/index.asp
