Symbol Systems by Gavriel Salomon
Gavriel Salomon, as an educational psychologist, spent time researching the effects of media on learning. His theory states that pictures, words, and graphs viewed on television shows or movies help the receiver acquire knowledge. He calls pictures, words, and graphs representational codes.
According to Salomon, symbol systems are the languages used in media to convey a message. The bulk of his research revolved around Sesame Street. When children viewed Sesame Street with an active intent to learn, they learned. When children viewed the show passively, information was not acquired in the same way. Salomon’s research also showed that family viewing supported a larger cognitive impact.
As a teacher, I think Salomon’s research would show the same results regarding online instructional applications. When a student is sitting in front of a computer screen to pass the time, what will happen? Time will pass. If a student is actively engaged in an application with the intent to learn, they will. If you consider the teacher to be the family support in the classroom, then it can be said that the presence/involvement of the classroom teacher will impact the effectiveness of the online learning activity.
I agree with Salomon’s theory. Pictures, words, and graphs do help the receiver acquire knowledge, regardless of whether these “codes” are on the television, in a movie, online, or on paper. As a math teacher, these codes are critical. Salomon’s research supports the way I teach math.
I teach math through a concrete-to-representational-to-abstract sequence of instruction to ensure students have a solid understanding of the concepts/skills they are learning. When students develop a concrete understanding of the math concept/skill, they are more likely to perform that skill and understand the concepts at the abstract level. Basically, I begin every lesson with Sesame Street. Pictures, words, and graphs—the representational codes—do help the receiver acquire knowledge. No matter what content area a teacher instructs, it is important to provide these visual clues/cues.
References
Symbol Systems (Gavriel Salomon). (n.d.). Sybmol Systems. Retrieved March 10, 2014, from http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/symbol-systems.html
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog on symbol systems theory. I totally agree when students have an active intent to learn, they do! I too use pictures, words, and graphs to help my students learn abstract ideas. Although, I have to say this gets harder to do as the material gets more difficult in high school math! I will have to remember to bring the basics back to Sesame Street to help my students master concepts.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe when students can visually see when something makes sense, it stays with them so much longer. Just this week we were discussing the relationship between the slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines. The first time I went over it we completed everything algebraically. The next hour I was thinking that students were struggling with this concept so we got out the graph paper and visually looked at the slopes of parallel lines, then perpendicular lines. I could literally see the light bulb go off in their heads (especially with that concept of opposite reciprocal slopes of perpendicular lines)!! This is exactly what Salomon was talking about with the symbol systems theory!!