The Relationship Between Individual Differences in Diagram-Drawing Skills not Requiring Numerical Processing and Expectations about Learning Physics

Abstract

When learning physics, mentally imagining a phenomenon and illustrating the image appropriately is known to facilitate problem solving. Recently, it has been suggested that individual differences in mental imagery ability, such as the ability to visualize space, is an essential factor for learning achievements in all scientific and technological subjects, including physics. This study analyzed correlations between drawing skills and expectations, which are related to the motivation to learn in first year high school students (n＝173). A test for assessing drawing skills was developed for this study, in which numerical processing such as calculations were not required. The results indicated that students with lower “visualization” skills, which include imagining a phenomenon based on presented sentences and drawing the phenomenon, were at risk for decline in “agency beliefs (effort).” It was also suggested that high control beliefs, agency beliefs (ability), and agency beliefs (teachers) were facilitated by acquiring a high degree of skills in making “physical descriptions,” such as the ability to add physical concepts to figures. Furthermore, there were more significant gender differences in control beliefs and agency beliefs (ability), as compared to the results of objective tests. It was also indicated that girls tended to make lower assessments of their learning achievements in physics than boys.