Semi-Discovery Learning Support System for Analogical Reasoning in High-School Physics

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a learning support system that supports the learning process by combining the processes of analogical reasoning and discovery learning. In learning high- school physics, as a method to deepen the understanding of physical phenomena, learners focus on mapping knowledge for known phenomenon and target phenomenon. This similarities-based mapping of knowledge enables learners to discover the type of influence between the knowledge parameters. However, before learners focus on the similarities, they must develop correct hypotheses for each phenomenon. Moreover, it is difficult for learners to create/modify/justify their hypotheses. In addition, they sometimes struggle to discover similarities in these phenomena. Our proposed system provides such learners support functions to complete the learning process. For our preliminary evaluation, nine participants completed pre- and post-test questionnaires using the proposed system. The results revealed that the system helped learners identify the relationships among parameters and similarities/differences among phenomena. However, the system did not help learners who could not identify the appropriate formula by viewing the graph. Therefore, future studies should focus on the needs of such learners and provide inputs to improve the system.