Journal article
How Do Secondary Science Teachers Perceive the Use of Interactive Simulations? The Affordance in Singapore Context
Journal of science education and technology, Vol.27(6), pp.550-565
12/2018
DOI: 10.1007/s10956-018-9744-2
Abstract
Research has shown that teaching science with a modeling-oriented approach, particularly with interactive simulations, will
promote student engagement and understanding. To date, many interactive simulations have been developed and adopted for
classroom practices. The purpose of this study was to explore secondary school science teachers’ perceived affordance of
interactive simulation as well as their practical experience with simulation implementation in class. Twelve science teachers
from seven schools were interviewed individually and the data was triangulated with their teaching plans and student assignments. Their past experiences of simulation implementation revealed that most teachers adopted simulations for demonstration
purpose in teacher-led instruction. Their attempts to provide students opportunities to use the simulations to explore alternative
modeling by themselves did not seem to work well. There are various reasons for this, such as the shortage of facilities, Internet
bandwidth, and technological knowledge. There was also a pressing need for teachers to complete the required syllabus in limited
classroom time. The majority of teachers’ future intent to use simulation in class was quite weak, especially with the less
proficient students who had some difficulty understanding simulations. Although interactive simulations have great potential
to promote students’ understanding in abstract science concepts, overcoming the difficulties of implementation may require other
alternatives such as a flipped classroom approach. Future studies can investigate how to design learning activities outside class, to
engage students in exploring modeling in simulations.
Keywords Interactive simulations . Technology implementation . Science education . Modeling-oriented instruction
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- How Do Secondary Science Teachers Perceive the Use of Interactive Simulations? The Affordance in Singapore Context
- Creators
- Wenjin Vikki BoGavin W FulmerChristine Kim-Eng LeeVictor Der-Thanq Chen
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of science education and technology, Vol.27(6), pp.550-565
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10956-018-9744-2
- ISSN
- 1059-0145
- eISSN
- 1573-1839
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/501100006124, name: National Institute of Education, award: OER 10/15 GWF
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2018
- Academic Unit
- Teaching and Learning
- Record Identifier
- 9983993328502771
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