“All too often, instruction assumes that students build knowledge sequentially, from one prerequisite idea to the next, in a linear, hierarchical manner that mirrors the design of traditional textbooks and lectures. In real life, however, we tend to advance our understanding through a process that is much more haphazard and stochastic.” The authors of this article explain how video can convey difficult ideas in science. They say that while the traditional approach presents ideas in a linear progression, we make sense of this material through a process that is much more malleable and subject to many more influences than we currently understand or acknowledge.
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Grasping Science Visually
Instruction often assumes that students build knowledge sequentially, but what if it's much more haphazard than that? Science Magazine explains how video helps convey difficult ideas.
Monthly Issue
April 2026
In this monthly issue, we examine how our understanding of energy — and how we source and use it — is evolving.
1 video
11 articles