Multiple representation-based cognitive dissonance: A strategy to reduce misconception in chemistry learning

Multiple representations are ubiquitous in chemistry education. To benefit from multiple representations, students have to make connections between them. However, connection making is a difficult task for students. Prior research shows that supporting connection making enhances students' learning in math and science domains. Most prior research has focused on supporting one type of connection-making process: conceptually making sense of connections among representations. Yet, recent research suggests that a second type of connection-making process plays a role in students' learning: perceptual fluency in translating among representations. I hypothesized that combining support for both conceptual sense making of connections and for perceptual fluency in connection making leads to higher learning gains in general chemistry among undergraduate students. I tested this hypothesis in two experiments with altogetherN= 158 undergraduate students using an intelligent tutoring system for chemistry atomic structure and bonding. Results suggest that the combination of conceptual sense-making support and perceptual fluency-building support for connection making is effective for students with low prior knowledge, whereas students with high prior knowledge benefit most from receiving perceptual fluency-building support alone. This finding suggests that students' learning in chemistry can be enhanced if instruction provides support for connection making among multiple representations in a way that tailors to their specific learning needs.

We introduce the problem of detecting a group of students from classroom videos. The problem requires the detection of students from different angles and the separation of the group from other groups in long videos (one to one and a half hours).We use multiple image representations to solve the problem. We use FM components to separate each group from background groups, AM-FM components for detecting the back-of-the-head, and YOLO for face detection. We use classroom videos from four different groups to validate our approach. Our use of multiple representations is shown to be significantly more accurate than the use of YOLO alone.

The integration of digital technology in chemistry education necessitates the development of innovative learning media to facilitate students’ comprehension of abstract and complex concepts, such as atomic structure. This study aimed to develop and validate an Android-based interactive learning medium and to examine its practicality for chemistry learning. A research and development (R&D) methodology was employed, utilizing the 4-D model comprising define, design, develop, and disseminate stages. During the define stage, students’ learning needs and difficulties were identified through classroom observations, interviews, and needs analysis questionnaires. The design stage involved the formulation of learning objectives, content organization, and the development of a media prototype. In the develop stage, the learning media was evaluated using validation instruments completed by experts in chemistry content, instructional media, and learning design. The disseminate stage focused on assessing practicality through student response questionnaires. The results revealed that the developed learning media achieved high validity, with mean expert validation scores of 3.86 for content, 3.80 for media, and 3.85 for design, resulting in an overall mean score of 3.83, categorized as very valid. Furthermore, student responses indicated a high level of practicality, with an average score of 3.55, classified as very positive. These findings suggest that the Android-based interactive learning media is feasible and practical for supporting students’ understanding of atomic structure and has strong potential for implementation in chemistry learning contexts.

Friend With Benefits (FWB) relationship is a new label for relationships with the opposite sex. Individuals who are in FWB relationships in Indonesia can experience cognitive dissonance because it is not in line with the norms that apply in Indonesia. Cognitive dissonance is an imbalance that occurs because there are two opposing thoughts, causing psychological discomfort. This study aimed to determine the description of cognitive dissonance in individuals who are in FWB relationships. The approach in this research was qualitative phenomenology. The data collection method used semi-structured interview techniques. The data analysis technique used deductive thematic analysis. Three participants in this study were aged 18-25 years who were currently in or had previously been in a FWB relationship. The results of the study showed that there were three main themes, namely sources of cognitive dissonance, psychological discomfort, and strategies for overcoming cognitive dissonance. Sources of cognitive dissonance include religion, culture, parental teachings, and experiences of FWB. Psychological discomfort was felt by participants in the form of feelings of guilt/sin, anxiety and doubt. Strategies used by participants to reduce cognitive dissonance include justification, self-affirmation, avoidance, and stopping FWB.

This paper presents a study about augmented-reality-based chemistry learning in a university lecture. Organic chemistry is often perceived as particularly difficult by students because spatial information must be processed in order to understand subject specific concepts and key ideas. To understand typical chemistry-related representations in books or literature, sophisticated mental rotation- and other spatial abilities are needed. Providing an augmented reality (AR) based learning support in the learning setting together with text and pictures is consistent with the idea of multiple external representations and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Using multiple external representations has proven to be beneficial for learning success, because different types of representations are processed separately in working memory. Nevertheless, the integration of a new learning medium involves the risk to hinder learning, in case of being not suitable for the learning topic or learning purpose. Therefore, this study investigates how the AR-use affects students’ cognitive load during learning in three different topics of organic chemistry. For this purpose also the usability of AR learning support is considered and the possible reduction of the influence of the mental rotation on learning success will be investigated.

Buttenfield (1988) pioneered research on multiple representations in the dawn of GIScience. Her efforts evoked inquiries into fundamental issues arising from the selective abstractions of infinite geographic complexity in spatial databases, cartography, and application needs for varied geographic details. These fundamental issues posed ontological challenges (e.g. entity classification) and implementational complications (e.g. duplication and inconsistency) in geographic information systems (GIS). Expanding upon Buttenfield’s line of research over the last three decades, this study reviewed multiple representations in spatial databases, spatial cognition, and deep learning. Initially perceived as a hindrance to GIS, multiple representations were found to offer new perspectives to encode and decipher geographic complexity. This paper commenced by acknowledging Buttenfield’s pivotal contributions to multiple representations in GIScience. Subsequent discussions synthesized the literature to outline cognitive representations of space in the brain’s hippocampal formation and feature representations in deep learning. By cross-referencing related concepts of multiple representations in GIScience, the brain’s spatial cells, and machine learning algorithms, this review concluded that multiple representations facilitate learning geography for both humans and machines.

Certain social consistency theories (status inconsistency, social mobility, and structural effects, integrated by Blalock using a multiple regression strategy),and certain cognitive consistency theories (Heider's balance, Osgood's attitudes congruity, Festinger's dissonance) can be formally integrated. Cognitive consistency is shown to be a type of statistical interaction, and omissions in past research are noted. The theories of Heider and Osgood are formalized using a multiple regression strategy, with particular attention devoted to defining interaction vectors or terms; alternative models are derived and discussed. Some comparisons between social and cognitive consistency are made, and the models are contrasted with Blacok's models. Suggested futher extensions include relative deprivation theory, where the effect of degree and direction of inconsistency are partitioned, and graphs, where the lines (relations) in a graph become main vectors in a multiple regression equation.

Mathematical problem solving in Basic General Education remains a pedagogical challenge closely related to conceptual understanding, representation, and logical reasoning. This study aimed to analyze the influence of visual thinking and the use of multiple representations on the development of mathematical problem-solving skills at this educational level. A quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was applied to a sample of 120 fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade students from public urban schools. The intervention was based on the systematic use of diagrams, schemas, and visual representations within active learning methodologies. The results revealed statistically significant improvements in problem interpretation, procedure selection, and solution justification, as well as an increase in high-performance levels. The study concludes that visual thinking and multiple representations are effective instructional strategies for fostering meaningful and functional mathematical learning in Basic General Education.

Students organize scientific knowledge and reason about issues in the Earth sciences by manipulating internally-constructed mental models and socially-constructed, expressed, conceptual models. The Earth sciences, which focus on the study of complex, dynamic, Earth systems, may present unique cognitive difficulties to students in their development of authentic, accurate expressed conceptual models of these systems. This pilot study came about as we were seeking to construct inquiry modules to assist undergraduate students as they developed an understanding of eutrophication along the coastal margin, a good example of a complex, dynamic, environmental process. The modules we developed coupled the use of physical models and information technology (IT)-based multiple representations with an inquiry-based learning environment that allowed our students to develop and test their conceptual models based on available evidence and to solve authentic, complex, and ill-constrained problems. Our hypothesis was that the quality of students' conceptual models would predict their performance on inquiry modules, and that students' prior knowledge (measured by number of previous courses in geology) would mediate the strength of the relationship between students' model expression and their inquiry performance. Statistical results of this study indicated such a relationship existed only among students in the high prior knowledge group. In the light of our findings, we make recommendations for pedagogical accommodations to improve all undergraduates' abilities to understand complex, dynamic, environmental systems, with a particular emphasis on students who have lower levels of prior knowledge.

In previous chapters, we discussed the use of visualization from the perspective of the different tasks involved, and the different representation formats possible. We now attempt to tie the tasks and representations together. In Section 18.1, we first discuss experimental evidence supporting the use of multiple representations, and then discuss how optimization systems can support multiple representations (Section 18.2). Finally, we discuss how these representations can be built and maintained by multiple users perhaps working in multiple locations at different points in time (Section 18.3).KeywordsMultiple RepresentationGroup Decision Support SystemHomogeneous ApproachMathematical Programming FormulationElectronic Meeting SystemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Studies indicate that the use of multiple representations in teaching helps students become better problem solvers. We report on a study to investigate students’ difficulties with multiple representations. We conducted teaching/learning interviews with 20 students in a first semester calculus‐based physics course. Each student was interviewed four times during the semester, each time after they had completed an exam in class. During these interviews students were first asked to solve a problem they had seen on the exam, followed by problems that differed in context and type of representation from the exam problem. Students were provided verbal scaffolding to solve the new problems. We discuss the common difficulties that students encountered when attempting to transfer their problem solving skills across problems in different representations.

This study examines the impact of implementing multiple representation method in responding to the challenge of learning science specifically in relation to enhancing students’ reasoning skill. Pre-experimental method was applied to obtain research data from participants consisted of 8th grader students at a private junior high school in Bandung, Indonesia. The effect on reasoning skill was studied from students’ arguments in answering question related to respiratory system. The arguments were then analyzed by the completeness of argument component, level of argument, and quality of argument referring to Toulmin’s argumentation pattern (TAP). The findings show that students experienced significant improvement in reasoning skill expressed in their arguments. The improvement was evident in the higher argument level and better argument quality achieved by students after the implementation of multiple representation method. In relation to quality of argument, the overall quality of argument shifted from the domination of weak arguments to the domination of strong arguments. Additionally, the use of multiple representation in learning assists students to be able to use various forms of information such as graphics, visual images, tables, scientific formula, and written expression in explaining concepts.

The power of The Geometer's Sketchpad® (GSP) for teaching and learning lies in its potential for enabling students to explore geometric concepts and recognize relationships among these concepts as illustrated through the use of multiple representations. This article explores two problems and examines how the use of tables along with GSP sketches may assist students in understanding these concepts. The first activity investigates the relationship of the length of a trapezoid's median (or midsegment) to that of its bases. The second involves showing how the area of a regular polygon approaches that of a circle when the number of sides increases. In both activities, we will start with the geometric object, look at the measurements, tabulate these, and make a graph to illuminate the situation.

Representation plays an important role in helping students understand chemistry learning. This is due to the many chemical concepts that require visualization. Representation is something that still needs to be studied. So this study aims to see the development of representation research in chemistry education. The articles used in this study are articles from 2018 to 2022. This Systematic Literature Review research used Publish or Perish software, then filtered and extracted data according to the criteria for the research objectives to create 30 relevant articles and combined using the Prisma Protocol. The results showed that research related to representation in chemistry learning is still frequently conducted in the last 5 years. This research often discusses related to cognitive ability, which is most associated with chemistry concepts and conceptual understanding. Students and teachers are commonly used samples in research. In addition, stated of matter is most widely used subject in chemistry research.

Organizations face increasing pressure to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into business strategies, yet many struggle to align CSR commitments with actual practices, leading to corporate hypocrisy—a perceived inconsistency between CSR rhetoric and behavior. While prior research explores the consequences of hypocrisy on employees, little is known about the cognitive strategies they use to navigate these inconsistencies. Drawing on Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT), this study examines how employees reconcile hypocrisy‐induced tensions in a multinational consulting firm, “HYDING,” where CSR commitments are structurally compartmentalized. Our findings unveil three dissonance reduction strategies: blinding (i.e., selective exposure to inconsistencies), outsourcing (i.e., denial of responsibility), and imagining (i.e., adding consonant cognitions). By uncovering the micro‐level strategies that triggered corporate hypocrisy, this study contributes to micro‐CSR literature, offering insights into mitigating hypocrisy's negative effects at the employee level.