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2.5 MULTI-SENSORY LEARNING THROUGH ARTS 27 all educational fields. Through realistic animations, attractive musical sound, and vivid colours, abstract concepts are brought to life. In order to increase their impact, some of the software tools implement the so-called user-in-the-loop feature (Wong, Bigras, & Cervera, 2005). Special multimedia applications and computer games can increase students’ motivation to learn and often lead to the better understanding of the studied topics (Philpot, Hall, Hubing, & Flori, 2005). The experimental results of several researchers in virtual reality also indicate that converting data and abstract concepts into mutually reinforcing multi-sensory representations enhances students’ understanding of scientific models (Loftin, Brooks, & Dede, 1998). This increasing realization of the cognitive importance of all of our senses is finding expression in several technologies. For example, with data sonification technologies, tables of numbers can be represented as sounds, revealing patterns in those data by changes in pitch and volume (the “music” produced would be an abstract but meaningful symphony of sound). In addition, there are companies which produce interfaces that convert digital data into different smells. A common characteristic of these applications is that they represent information that we usually do not perceive as having a sensory form (Staley, 2006). More specifically, research has indicated that auditory aids can enhance the teaching process of the fractions (connecting fractions with musical notes) (Rawson, 1992). This approach to teaching fractions can be applied to other areas such as grammar. Since grammar is systematic in the same way that music is, teachers can work with students to understand “the melody line” of the sentences. Campbell (2000) discusses visual imaging in relation to spatial-temporal reasoning for mathematics and science concepts. His research on the “Mozart Effect” also serves as an example of the interconnectedness of the visual, auditory, and reasoning processes that occur within the human brain. The methods we investigated during our first two studies explore in a harmonic way the visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic senses of the students. It helps them to imagine the studied abstract concepts and processes. In line with the above examples, the involved software tools use “structure sonification” or “recursive procedure/function sonification” to create “the melody line” of algorithms (Thompson, 2003). Students are also invited “to drum/type in the rhythm patterns of the loop skeletons of the algorithms” (using the keyboard) or “to play so-called recursive scenarios”. 2.5 Multi-sensory learning through arts Our third method takes additional multi-sensory elements into the programming education through arts (dance, music, rhythm, theatrical role-playing) too. Combining these art forms, teachers could create a multi-sensory learning
