Interparticle forces (IPFs) are among the most conceptually challenging topics in chemistry due to their abstract and sub-microscopic nature, which makes them difficult to visualize. Pre-service science teachers (PSTs) often hold persistent misconceptions about IPFs, limiting their ability to develop robust conceptual understanding. Augmented reality (AR) may offer interactive, three-dimensional representations that support PSTs in constructing more accurate mental models of these microscopic phenomena. This study investigated the effect of AR-supported intervention on PSTs’ conceptual understanding of IPFs using a quasi-experimental design. Data were collected through a concept and drawing test (CDT) and semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of 60 PSTs, and the data were analyzed using an independent-samples t-test. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in favor of AR-supported intervention between the experimental and control groups. Interview data further indicated a shift from bond-based explanations toward more scientifically accurate electrostatic reasoning, particularly regarding electrostatic attraction, polarity, and polarization. Overall, the findings suggest that AR may contribute to PSTs’ conceptual understanding of IPFs by facilitating the visualization and interpretation of abstract particle-level interactions.
The field of education continues to evolve in response to rapid technological developments, prompting many countries to integrate innovative instructional approaches into their science curricula. However, further evidence is needed regarding the effective implementation of these approaches and their potential to improve students’ learning outcomes. Educational robotics and design thinking have emerged as promising instructional approaches for supporting science learning and fostering students’ scientific process skills and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) attitudes.Therefore, this study investigated the effects of educational robotics applications and design thinking activities on the scientific process skills and STEM attitudes of seventh-grade secondary school students. A quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test control group design was employed with 134 seventh-grade students from two secondary schools. Students in the first experimental group participated in educational robotics activities, those in the second experimental group engaged in design thinking activities, and the control group received instruction based on the regular science curriculum. Data were collected using the Scientific Process Skills Test and the STEM Attitude Scale and analyzed using paired-samples t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The findings showed that both educational robotics and design thinking activities significantly improved students’ scientific process skills and STEM attitudes compared with the regular curriculum. Although both instructional approaches produced positive outcomes, educational robotics demonstrated a stronger effect on students’ scientific process skills. These findings provide empirical evidence supporting the integration of educational robotics and design thinking into secondary school science instruction to promote students’ scientific process skills and positive attitudes toward STEM.
Multilingual learners are the fastest-growing group in schools, yet science classrooms often treat their linguistic and cultural diversity as a challenge rather than a resource. This qualitative case study examines how three newcomer multilingual learners navigated science learning when project-based learning instruction shifted to the home during COVID-19. We explored how students engaged with science through home materials, family collaboration, and multimodal means of expression. Drawing on figured worlds, we analyzed their interactions and artifacts, across three different online discourse structures. Findings show that students figured themselves in school science in various way, including applying science ideas from school to created materials in the home, building connections to science through family support and with culturally important objects, ultimately blending home and school to create hybrid spaces where they might belong.
Although virtual laboratories (VLs) have been widely promoted as tools for expanding inquiry-based science learning, their potential for supporting dialogic inquiry in limited resource areas remains underexplored. This study investigates how the affordances of VLs are enacted through dialogic inquiry in Brazilian upper-secondary physics classrooms. Drawing on a practitioner-led design-based research project with local teachers, the paper reports an analysis of VL-supported physics lessons in small-town municipal public schools in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Guided by the Activity-Centred Analysis and Design (ACAD) framework, the analysis integrates three dimensions of classroom activity: epistemic task phases, dialogic interaction, and digital tool use. Epistemic Network Analysis and Lag Sequential Analysis were used to examine structural relationships and temporal pathways, complemented by evidence from teacher reflections and student interviews. The findings show that VL use shifted classroom discourse towards experimentation-centred and evidence-oriented inquiry. Manipulation-based actions were primarily associated with procedural coordination, whereas visualisation-focused affordances were more closely linked to observation, questioning, reasoning, and collaborative explanation. Observation-based exploratory talk emerged as a key mediating practice between simulation interaction and conceptual dialogue. The study contributes to understanding how technological affordances, inquiry pedagogy, and classroom dialogue interact in technology-mediated science learning, and how educators can capitalise on this to support knowledge construction.
