A Research of Employing Cognitive Load Theory in Science Education via Web-Pages

This study adopted Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) to investigate the influences of multimedia presentations on achievements of science learning and the correlations between eye-movement models under distinct multimedia combinations and learner-controlled modes. Three units from the Science Education Website set by the Ministry of Education (Tainan) to assist student learning were employed: Air and Combustion”, “Heat Effects toward Substances”, and “Healthy Diet.” This multifunctional website offers teaching resources, interesting experiments, inquiry experiments, virtual animations, multi-assessments, and supplementary materials, which are highly interactive and simulative. Six classes of fifth graders (n=192) participated in this study. Our findings showed that the combination of multimedia elements apparently influenced students' performance; the “animation + narration” group performed evidently better than the “animation + subtitles” group. When the animated subject matters were in small segments under the Segmentation Principle, multimedia presentations still brought affections to learning achievement, suggesting that the modality effect on students' learning exists constantly. Regarding the eye-movement models, this study focused mainly on discussing the “active-control mode” and “multimedia combination forms”. These eye movement data supplemented the evidences gained to identify the relevant results. In conclusion, inappropriate multimedia combinations may interfere with learning. More functions and information inputs do not guarantee better learning effects.