Electricity's in Visible: Thai Middle School Students' Perceptions toward Inquiry-based Science Learning with Visualized Simulation

Abstract

Computers have been used in education in many ways from the very beginning of their history and computer simulations which contain visualizing features for representing authentic system or phenomenon and it has been recognized as an effective tool for teaching and learning in science. This pilot study investigated an effect of simulation-based inquiry learning on student's perception s. A total of 18 middle school students in an urban public school at Northeastern region of Thailand were recruited in this study. They interacted with a physical science lesson of simulation-based inquiry learning on light refraction and then they were administered 21 items of 5-points rating scale questionnaire measuring perceived learning (PL), flow (FL), enjoyment (E), perceived ease of use (PEU), perceive of usefulness (PU), and perceive of satisfaction (PS), after the interaction. The result showed that the highest percentage of their perceptions were E, PS, PL, PU, PEU, and FL, respectively. The finding revealed that they prevalently have positive perception towards the simulation-based inquiry learning. However, the simulation-based inquiry learning experience is needed to be improved for the flow of learning and to assisting them to learn with the simulation.