The impact of light-weight inquiry with computer simulations on science learning in classrooms

Highlights

• A light-weight inquiry activity was proposed to enhance the science literacy.

• Such an approach improved students' ability in interpreting data and evidence.

• Students perceived a higher level of deep motivation and strategy.

• It transformed a view of memorizing or drill and practice into sophisticated views.

• It also triggered a surface motivation (e.g. students' fear of failure in tests).

Abstract

Pedagogical design for science learning in classrooms often involves tension between the scientific community expectations and traditional curricular expectations.

To address this issue, this study proposed a light-weight inquiry activity that can be pragmatically implemented in regular classrooms based on the minimalism principle and the teacher-led collaboration principle. Data gathered from 49 middle school students indicated that after learning in the light-weight inquiry condition, students demonstrated significant enhancements in the target science knowledge. In particular, the students in the light-weight inquiry condition displayed significantly higher levels of enhancement in scientific literacy than those who learned in the traditional lecturing condition. Furthermore, the students perceived a higher level of deep motivation and strategy but a lower level of memorizing science facts and calculating and practicing when they learned in the light-weight inquiry condition. The proposed pedagogical design demonstrated a positive impact on the learning of science knowledge, scientific literacy, and conceptions of learning and approaches to learning science. However, an unexpected effect was also observed, showing that the light-weight inquiry activity might also trigger surface motivation reflecting students' fear of failure in tests and the orientation to meet external expectations. The implications of the educational practice are discussed, and directions for future studies are also addressed.

Introduction

Science educators have pointed out that the pedagogical design for science learning in classrooms often involves tension between the scientific community expectations and traditional curricular expectations. The scientific community expectations endeavor to build students' competencies in using and building evidence-based and explanatory models of the world that go beyond helping students learn the scientific knowledge (Osborne, 2014; Passmore, Gouvea, & Giere, 2014, pp. 1171–1202). Educators have argued that pedagogical transformation is needed to better support meaningful engagement in scientific practices which leverage the expectation of scientific communities and the curricular goals (Berland et al., 2016). However, under the curricular constraints including time and assessment requirements, teachers are allowed limited space for students to participate in scientific inquiry activities, which reduces their perception of science learning as meaningful. As a result, when learning with a didactic approach to fulfill the curricular expectations, students often hold less deep motivation and show a low tendency to apply deep strategies, while at the same time considering science learning as memorizing scientific facts to pass the test (Chang, Liu, & Tsai, 2016).

Computer simulations have been regarded as one of the effective approaches to facilitating inquiry-based learning in science education as they enable students to experience the process of scientific inquiry (Eckhardt, Urhahne, Conrad, & Harms, 2013; Vreman-de Olde, de Jong, & Gijlers, 2013). Computer simulations visualize abstract scientific concepts with appropriate representations and provide an interactive space for students to explore relationships between multiple variables (van Joolingen, de Jong, Lazonder, Savelsbergh, & Manlove, 2005). Previous studies have confirmed the benefit of using computer simulations in promoting students' understanding of science knowledge (Gijlers & de Jong, 2013), facilitating conceptual change (Lee, Jonassen, & Teo, 2011), and developing inquiry skills (Smetana & Bell, 2012). Therefore, computer simulations have been extensively applied to augment science teaching and learning (Rutten, Van Joolingen, & Van Der Veen, 2012; Smetana & Bell, 2014).

Meanwhile, extensive studies have integrated collaborative learning with computer simulations to enhance science learning in classrooms. The literature suggests that collaborative learning is helpful for assisting students in constructing scientific knowledge through group discussion (Lin, Duh, Li, Wang, & Tsai, 2013) and for fostering students' inquiry skills (Pedaste & Sarapuu, 2014). Moreover, students in pairs have exhibited better learning outcomes than individual students (Manlove, Lazonder, & de Jong, 2009). However, it has been suggested that computer simulations do not necessarily guarantee effective and productive science learning (Zacharia et al., 2015). How computer simulations are orchestrated with related resources under physical classroom constraints largely impacts the effectiveness of the use of simulations.

Even though technologies and software tools are widely available in schools, the impact of the technology-enhanced learning paradigm in science classrooms is still limited (Hickey, Taasoobshirazi, & Cross, 2012). How computer simulations should be effectively integrated into science curricula in regular classrooms is challenging for teachers (Scanlon, Anastopoulou, Kerawalla, & Mulholland, 2011). Extensive studies have indicated that learning with technologies is time consuming and often adds too much complexity for teachers (Roschelle, Dimitriadis, & Hoppe, 2013; Sharples et al., 2015). The orchestration issue, which refers to the methods empowered by technologies an educator may adopt to engage students in activities conducive to learning in classrooms, becomes critical to use simulations in regular classrooms (Chan, 2013). The consideration is that teachers face challenges in leveraging multiple resources and extrinsic constraints including time, curriculum relevance, discipline constraints, and assessment constraints, and the resources should be arranged in an effective way to support everyday classroom teaching (Dillenbourg, 2013).

To address the practical considerations of implementing new technology-enhanced learning in classrooms, multiple pedagogical design principles have been discussed. For instance, the minimalism principle emphasizes the spirit of “less is more” (Buxton, 2001), suggesting that the teaching/learning activity should minimize the teacher's extrinsic orchestration load when handling any complexity created by the technology or the activity itself (Dillenbourg, 2013). Furthermore, the teacher-led collaboration principle suggests that the integration of teacher guidance and direction with collaborative learning activities is necessary to reduce the frustration of students with low prior knowledge when participating in low-structured activities (Raes & Schellens, 2016). It is believed that the learning scenarios can be as effective as researchers expect in the classroom only when the technological tools and activities are appropriately orchestrated.

In this vein, this study proposes a light-weight inquiry activity that can be pragmatically implemented in regular classrooms to address the scientific community expectations, curricular expectations, and the orchestration considerations. The light-weight activity was designed based on the minimalism principle and the teacher-led collaboration principle. More specifically, it engages students in the science inquiry process with computer simulations under the guidance of the teacher with the knowledge goal and time constraints defined by the predefined curriculum. According to the teacher-led collaboration principle, a group of students were guided to work together to construct the knowledge in the timeframe set by the curriculum using a pre-defined worksheet designed by the teacher. In accordance with the minimalism principle, the activity minimizes the dependency on technology and therefore each student group only used a shared iPad to operate the computer simulation to participate in the inquiry. It was hoped that this light-weight inquiry activity could help students not only gain the knowledge defined by the curriculum, but also promote their scientific literacy and help them build sophisticated conceptions of science learning and understanding of the approaches to learning science.

A comparative study was conducted to compare the impacts of the light-weight inquiry activity and the traditional teaching approach. Multiple data from 49 middle school students including their conceptual test, scientific literacy test and conceptions of learning science and approaches to learning science were collected and analyzed to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: Does the light-weight inquiry activity improve students' knowledge learning outcomes?

RQ2: Does the light-weight inquiry activity enhance students' scientific literacy?

RQ3: Does the light-weight inquiry activity influence students' conceptions of learning sciences and approaches to learning sciences?