Abstracts - Earli

effectiveness as far as learning-to-write and learning-to-revise is concerned is observationallearning (Couzijn & Rijlaarsdam, 2005). In this paper we explore the effect of observationallearning on dyadic revision in more detail. 250 EFL learners were assigned to two experimentalconditions in which dyadic revision is the instructional method used to teach students how torevise a well-structured letter of application. In a first experimental condition students observed a‘mastery model’ in which two expert revisors modeled how to revise a letter of application inEnglish for contents and structure. In a second experimental condition two students learned how torevise a letter of application in a more traditional way i.e. by ‘doing it themselves’. Instead ofobserving two other students revise a letter of application for contents and structure they revisedthe same letter with a peer. To determine which instructional method is more effective, students’revision skills were measured immediately after the experimental intervention either on theindividual or on the dyadic level. Data were analysed using multilevel analyses. In addition to ourmain research question – namely, which instructional method is more effective as far as writing awell-structured letter of application is concerned - we also explored the interaction between theinstructional method used and individual differences such as level of English, writing and readingability and revision skills.M 1631 August 2007 14:35 - 15:55Room: HarmóniaPaper SessionComputer-supported learning environmentsChair:Tina Hascher, Universität Salzburg, AustriaReasoning through touch? Using haptics in life science educationPetter Bivall Persson, Linköping University, SwedenLena Tibell, Linköping University, SwedenMatthew Cooper, Linköping University, SwedenShaaron Ainsworth, University of Nottingham, United KingdomThe aim of the presented work is to investigate the impact of a visual and haptic(tactile/kinaesthetic) tool through an in situ evaluation focusing on learning and performance. Theinvestigation has a combined qualitative and quantitative design, including analysis of knowledgetests, problem solving tasks and interviews. Visual representations of molecular structures andprocesses are widely used within molecular life science and these visual tools includerepresentations on several levels, ranging from the macro level to the sub-microscopic and to thesymbolic, such as mathematical and chemical symbols, charts and diagrams of chemical reactions.Traditional representations commonly require the user to mentally add information; this can bestructural information, creating a three-dimensional model from a two-dimensional image, orprocedural, connecting real-world phenomena to dynamic properties implicitly described in therepresentation. The increasing importance of visualizations in molecular life science is clearlyreflected in the exponential growth in the number and range of visualizations in teaching andresearch literature, indicating how essential these visualizations are for understanding andresearching molecular life science, a subject often perceived as very abstract. Our visualizationsystem includes a combined visual and haptic model of a protein interacting with a ligand (small– 715 –