How images can support summarizing processes: a research study in primary school

Authors

  • Angela Piu Associate Professor of Experimental Pedagogy, Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Valle d’Aosta
  • Cinzia Angelini Full Professor of Experimental Pedagogy, Department of Education, University of RomaTre

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7346/PO-022025-17

Keywords:

visual communication; summarization skills; written production; prior knowledge; mental models.

Abstract

This article presents outcomes from the research project “Seeing Between the Lines” and aims to investigate how
visual communication can foster the development of the ability to identify the key information in a text and reformulate it. The research was undertaken in a primary school in Verrès (AO) during the 2024/2025 school
year and involved a total of 25 students from two fourth-grade and one fifth-grade level, who received an instructional intervention divided into three learning units, in accordance with the principles of multimedia learning and cognitive load theory (Mayer, 2009; Sweller, van Merriënboer, Paas, 2019). The research also included
a pre-test and post-test, both consisting of a structured assessment—the Summarizing Test (Menichetti, 2018)—
and a task involving producing a summary. The pre- and post-tests yielded statistically significant results in both
components for the two fourth-grade levels, and in one of the two components for the fifth-grade level.

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Published

2025-12-24

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 2 (2025): School culture, from curricular needs to requests for reform

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Angela Piu, Cinzia Angelini

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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