EFFECT OF A LABORATORY MANUAL DESIGN INCORPORATING VISUAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING AIDS ON STUDENT LEARNING AND ATTITUDES

The elements of visual information-processing theory were applied to t he design of a chemistry laboratory manual. The effectiveness of this approach on content learning, practical skill mastery, and attitudes o f university students in a general chemistry course was assessed. Two versions of a laboratory manual were developed: an experimental versio n that promotes visual information processing by integrating pictures or diagrams with text, and a control version identical to the experime ntal version in both activities and structure, but without pictures or diagrams. Three assessment instruments were used: an achieve ment tes t to assess cognitive outcomes, an attitude survey to assess affective outcomes, and a manipulative skills observation checklist to assess p sychomotor outcomes. Results showed that the manual incorporating visu al information-processing characteristics helped students gain signifi cantly higher scores on measures of achievement and psychomotor skills , and also stimulated students to develop more favorable attitudes tow ard the laboratory activities. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.