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Usability of electronic instructional tools in the physics classroom
By Ndihokubwayo, K.
Information Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming valuable tools to help improve education, especially during teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. In this regard, we conducted this study to explore the usability of ICT tools in Physics taught courses. To collect data, we used classroom observation protocol for undergraduate STEM to assess how teachers and learners spend time on classroom activities among day and boarding schools and urban and rural schools. We also surveyed physics teachers after a short workshop on the use of PhET simulations and YouTube videos for teaching optics to reveal their workability and usefulness. As a result, we found that teachers in the day schools guide and assign more work to their learners, allow them to work in groups more than those in boarding schools. Similarly, learners in rural schools spend much time working in groups more than their colleagues in urban schools. However, teachers in urban schools spend much time guiding their learners than teachers in rural schools. Teachers use more of textbooks among various instructional tools. Teachers were not aware of and used to PhET simulations and YouTube videos in physics class; however, after the workshop, they conceived them as convenient electronic instructional tools that can accelerate the active learning of Optics. Since these resources are free to access and easy to use, we highly recommend teachers to use them in their daily teaching and learning activities. © 2020 by the authors; licensee Modestum.
Effectiveness of PhET Simulations and YouTube Videos to Improve the Learning of Optics in Rwandan Secondary Schools
By Ndihokubwayo, K.
Effective teaching of physics requires the use of well-designed and diversified instructional tools such as multimedia throughout the teaching and learning process. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Physics Educational Technology (PhET) simulations and YouTube videos to improve the learning of optics in Rwandan secondary schools. The study was framed by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. A total of 136 senior-4 physics students from six schools were divided among three groups and taught with the usual teaching methods only, the usual teaching methods supported by PhET simulations or YouTube videos, respectively. Student achievement was measured by administering the Geometric Optics Conceptual Understanding Test to each group of students before and after teaching. The groups of students who were taught using PhET simulations and YouTube videos achieved significantly more gains on the posttest compared with the students who experienced neither. PhET simulations and YouTube videos saw average normalised learning gains of 12 and 11%, respectively, while students who experienced solely the usual teaching methods got a gain of only 2%. These results show that the use of PhET simulations without student manipulation (as applied in this study) is equally effective as the use of YouTube videos. The researchers recommend that teachers incorporate these instructional tools as a way of effectively teaching and learning optics. © 2020 Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE).
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