Editing Generative Drawing Principle (section)

=='''Overview'''==
The [[Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning]] suggests that tasking students to create a drawing based on a lesson can foster [[generative processing]] <ref name="Mayer">Mayer, R. E. (2014). Cognitive theory of multimedia learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (2nd ed., pp. 43–71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> by priming [[Metacognition | metacognitive processes]] <ref name="LEUTNERSCHMECK">Leutner, D., & Schmeck, A. (2014). The Generative Drawing Principle in Multimedia Learning. In R. Mayer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, pp. 433-448). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139547369.022</ref>. Mayer explains that generative processing involves the learner selecting and organizing material and then integrating it with prior knowledge, which can result in making meaningful connections, or transfer.<ref name="Mayer" /> 
<br><br>To yield deep understanding, a drawing activity should activate all three areas of cognitive processing: selecting (identifying the key components), organizing (creating a spatial layout of the components to explain their relationships), and integrating (calling upon prior knowledge to relate the verbal information in a visual-spatial model)<ref name="Mayer" /><ref name="FIORELLAMAYER">Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. (2015). Learning by Drawing. In Learning as a Generative Activity: Eight Learning Strategies that Promote Understanding (pp. 62-78). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781107707085.006</ref>.  As described in Fiorella and Mayer, drawings can serve four purposes in learning: decorative, representational, organizational, and explanatory; however, while decorative drawings can be extraneous and representational drawings can help with selection, tasking students with creating organizational and/or explanatory drawings can be more beneficial to learning because such drawings support organization and integration of material <ref name="FIORELLAMAYER"></ref>.