Coherence Analysis

1.      What is the Coherence Principle and its most important constraints/criteria?

The Coherence Principal is the idea that humans can only process so much in their working  memory. By overloading instructional materials with redundant or unrelated visuals, audio effects, and background music, learners will less successfully be able to grasp the concepts and ideas the instructor wishes to impart.

2.      Describe and/or include one example of successful and one example of unsuccessful attempts to apply the Coherence Principle in actual instruction and training you have experienced, especially as it might be implemented in PowerPoint-based instruction and training. Have you ever seen this principle violated or abused? Identify the violations, including citations as needed from your textbook.

The Massachusetts State Police recently visited our high school to review safety procedures in the event of an intruder in the building. The officer who spoke to us had good presence and was articulate; unfortunately, the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied his lecture violated the Coherence Principle in two ways.

The first was that his presentation contained extraneous text. It was also set up in such a fashion that what was written on the slides was almost word-for-word what he was saying. The slides were dense with text and poorly spaced. It would have been more effective if he had paired his speech with relevant visuals and a couple of choice words. Sentences upon sentences of text on a PowerPoint presentation is always a bad idea.

The presentation did contain one visual, but it didn’t seem to be directly related to the material on the slide. I can’t remember what the image was, or what the material on that slide was about. This is likely because the image disrupted my ability to build an appropriate link to the material (Harp and Mayer, 1998).

An example of a successful presentation was one I saw today in a workshop I attended at the Technology and Literacy at the Beach conference in Myrtle Beach, SC. The presenter, who was speaking about social media tools in the classroom, had a PowerPoint slide that contained four words and a picture. The picture related directly to a point she was making about collaboration, and helped me to understand what she was talking about.

3.      Discuss the relationship of the Coherence Principle to other Multimedia Learning Principles examined thus far in your readings.

The Coherence Principle dovetails nicely with a number of Multimedia Learning Principles we’ve studied earlier. In particular, I thought of the Multimedia Principle, which advocates for the use of both text (either spoken or written) and visuals. While initially it might appear that the Multimedia Principal is in contrast with the Coherence Principle, the key to the Multimedia Principal is using graphics that support learning. The Coherence Principle warns against the dangers of using complex, tangentially-related visuals. Put into this context, it becomes evident that these two principles are complementary.

4.      Discuss the relationship of the Coherence Principle to fundamental theories of psychology as described by Clark & Mayer in your textbook.

While it would appear that employing the arousal theory when creating instructional materials would help to stimulate interest and engage readers in the material, old friend John Dewey reminds us that “interest cannot be added to an otherwise boring lesson like some kind of seasoning” (Dewey, 1913). When instruction is paired with extraneous audio or video effects, the learner is often distracted from the core content of the lesson by the very accoutrements employed to help foster learning!

5.      What do you personally like or dislike about this principle? Present a coherent, informed opinion and explain why you hold this opinion. Are there any limitations or qualifications of the principle (caveats) which the authors did not consider and, if so, what are they?

I like the soundness of this principle. When you think about it rationally, it makes sense. We can only process and pay attention to so much, so when you add too many elements, it’s only natural that focus on and attainment of the desired learning objective becomes lessened. On the other hand, I can see how flashy multimedia bits can be used successfully as activators or rewards, either prior to or after the chief instructional lesson. Problems come up when these effects are attempted to be implemented during the lesson.

I personally find it enjoyable to do work while listening to classical music. I’ll often play it in my classroom at a very low volume. Students say they enjoy it, so it’s something I’ll usually put on when students are doing independent work. I wonder, though, after having read this chapter, if that music is a hindrance, resulting in writing tasks taking more time, as the text suggests. I've be curious to do my own research experiment to find out.

References

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2008). E-learning and the science of instruction, 2nd edition. Pfeiffer: San Francisco, CA.

Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and effort in education. Cambridge, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Harp, S.F., & Mayer, R.E. (1998). How seductive details do their damage: A theory of cognitive interest in science learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 414-434.