The study on integrating visualised simulation into context-aware ubiquitous learning activities for elementary science education

Abstract

Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. In this study, an integration of visualised simulation into a progressive context-aware ubiquitous learning with respect to the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) inquiry sequence has been created with the aim of fostering elementary school students' scientific understanding of sound, inquiry-based learning performance, and motivation towards science. Participating in this study were 51 elementary school students, who were divided into the three groups according to the types of instruction: (1) traditional instruction, (2) POE-oriented contextaware ubiquitous learning, and (3) POE-oriented context-aware ubiquitous learning integrated with visualised simulation. The results showed that students in the specially designed ubiquitous learning group outperformed the others in the development of scientific understanding about sound, and they displayed a better POE learning performance. In terms of science motivation, the results showed that students, who had participated in progressive context-aware ubiquitous learning, had the most positive effect on their motivation to learn science. The findings indicated the benefits of the integrative and the progressive context-aware ubiquitous learning in the natural setting of school science education.