Students' information processing in agricultural systems technology laboratories: Utilizing external representation while solving word problems

The purpose of this study was to examine students' utilization of sketching to externally represent their solution strategy. Participants were students enrolled in an introduction agricultural systems technology course in 2015 and 2016. Students were asked to determine the amount of force required to lift a given load using a pulley system. Students were randomly assigned to two groups to solve the problem. Students in the treatment group were given specific directions to sketch the pulley system described in the problem scenario. Students assigned to the control group were not given specific directions to sketch the system. A total of 56 students completed the problem set. There was no statistically significant difference on problem scores between the students who were asked to sketch and the student who were not asked to sketch (t (54) = 0.78, p =.428). There were three students that answered the three questions correctly. Students' sketches were scored for correctness based on the pulley problem description. The average sketch score was 8.5 out of 12 (SD = 2.24). Qualitative analysis of students' sketches indicate difficulty in concrete external representation of the pulley system description. Implications for instruction include implementing reading comprehension strategies as well as examining word problem structure for text readability. Recommendations for practice include dedicated instructional time to provide students with practice in sketching representations of problem structures. Future research will investigate the use of digital photos of problem systems compared to requiring student sketches.