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TECHNOLOGY’ S IMPACT ON LEARNING PROCESS IN SCIENCE
TEACHING
IN PRIMARY SCHOOL
Malamitsa
Katerina, Kokkotas Panagiotis, Piliouras
Panagiotis, Plakitsi Katerina, Vlahos Ioannis
Department of
Primary Education, University of Athens, Greece
Abstract This study
is concerned with the computer as a pedagogical tool in teaching science in
primary school. Students do not learn from technology although technology
can support meaning making by students. Computers may also function as
cognitive technologies for amplifying and reorganizing how learners think.
In addition the use of technology in teaching science may support reflective
thinking, when it enables users to compose new knowledge by adding new
representations, modifying old ones, and comparing the two.
In order to examine the contribution of new technologies
to learning science we conducted a research in primary school in Athens.
More specifically we explored if teaching science via computer simulation
and animation influences students’ learning and understanding concepts of
electricity. Although this was a relatively small-scale experiment,
criticizing our findings we could say that:
computers support a)knowledge construction, b)learning by doing and
c)learning by conversing for discussing, arguing and building consensus
among members of a learning community.
Summary This study is
concerned with the computer as a pedagogical tool in teaching science in
primary school. The value of computers in instruction has been of
considerable interest for many researchers lately (Kulik & Kulik 1987). The
ways in which we use technologies in schools should change from their
traditional roles of technology-as-teacher to technology-as-partner in the
learning process (Jonassen D., Peck K. & Wilson B. 1999). Students do not
learn from technology although technology can support meaning making by
students, something that will happen when students learn with technology.
Computers may also function as cognitive technologies
for amplifying and reorganizing how learners think. Unlike most other tools,
computers “as intellectual partners” can share the cognitive burden of
carrying out tasks (Salomon G. 1993). In addition the use of technology in
teaching science may support reflective thinking, when it enables users to
compose new knowledge by adding new representations, modifying old ones, and
comparing the two (Norman D. 1993). Technology can be used across the school
curricula to engage learners in thinking deeply about the content they are
studying.
Even more computers scaffold new forms of thinking and
reasoning in students’ zone of proximal development, the zone between
learners’ existing and potential capabilities. The Vygotskian perspective
stresses the functional reorganization of cognition with the use of symbolic
technologies (Pea R. 1985). Interactive educational software (e.g.
animation, simulation) engages new forms of reasoning that fundamentally
reorganize the ways in which learners represent what they know.
Research Design In order to examine the
contribution of new technologies to learning science we conducted a research
in primary school in Athens. We designed an educational CD, which was
constructed around three different lessons for 11years old students. Two
important points, closely correlated, need to be considered in our research:
the first is concerned with teaching as a specific form of knowledge
communication (i.e. electricity, “physics knowledge as it is thought”) and
the second is concerned with views on student knowledge, and more generally
on student learning, which are taken into account in the elaboration of
teaching strategies (White B. & Horowitz P 1988).
More
specifically we explored if teaching science via computer simulation and
animation influences students’ learning and understanding concepts of
electricity. The evaluation consisted of three interlinked strategies:
classroom observation, student interviews and a four-item questionnaire. A
pretest was administered to all students (control and experiment groups)
prior to the instruction. The pretest was helpful in assessing students’
prior knowledge of concepts of electricity and also in testing initial
equivalence among groups. A posttest was administered to measure the
effectiveness of computer-assisted teaching (experiment group) versus
noncomputer-assisted teaching (control group). Although this was a
relatively small-scale experiment, the students generally responded
positively both to the introduction of technology (practical work with real
material and interactive activities with computer) and to the learning
environment (constructivist approach).
However,
criticizing our findings we could say that:
Ø
computers support knowledge construction
for representing learners’ ideas, understandings and beliefs
Ø
computers support learning by doing for
simulating meaningful real world problems, situations and contexts
Ø
computers support learning by conversing
for discussing, arguing and building consensus among members of a learning
community (Jonassen D. 2000).
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