An interaction effect between young children's field dependence-independence and order of learning with glass-box and black-box simulations

A counterbalanced measures design was used to examine whether the order of learning with a glass-box simulation about the life cycle of butterflies, and, a black-box simulation about the life of bees, differentially affected field-dependent and field-independent children's performance on two related knowledge tests. The children aged from 5 to 6.5 years old were classified into a field type based on their Children's Embedded FiguresźTest scores. Subsequently, they were assigned into Group A and Group B. Group A learned first with the glass-box simulation followed by the black-box simulation, while Group B used the tools in the reverse order. A statistically significant interaction effect was found between field type and order of learning with the simulations on the butterfly post-test performance, showing that learning first with the black-box simulation facilitated field-dependent children's subsequent learning with the glass-box simulation. The results tap on the issue about whether field dependence-independence is a cognitive ability or cognitive style, and the issue of the malleability of cognitive styles as well. Implications and future research directions are discussed. The study examined order effects of learning with glass and black-box simulations.Children's field dependence-independence (FD/FI) was used as a classifying variable.The study used a counterbalanced measures design.An interaction effect was found between order of tools and learners' field type.FD learners performed best when they learned first with a black-box simulation.