This study aimed to examine the role of a simulation as a potential aid that may help students bridge the gap between theory and reality, in the case of electric circuits. Sixty‐three pairs of students aged about 15 years were presented with two tasks involving real circuits. An open simulation environment was available as an optional aid for the experimental group. Significant differences were found between the achievements of the groups. The use of the simulation contributed to students' confidence and enhanced their motivation to stay on‐task. The detailed analysis revealed the role of the simulation as a source of constructive feedback, helping students identify and correct their miscon‐ceptions and cope with the common difficulties of relating formal representations to real circuits and vice versa.

This paper describes a pilot study aimed at exploring the possibility of introducing simulation‐based homework into science learning, in the present junior‐high school setting. Two 9th grade classes have performed simulation‐based homework assignments as part of the study of electrical circuits, during two months. Students’ views about this activity were analyzed in relation to their prior computer experience and their achievement. The findings reveal that most students favour using the simulation as a home learning environment and find it more interesting and effective than the other homework activities. Students realise the potential of a simulation as a source of constructive feedback that enables them to take more responsibility on their learning.

Simulation-based activities provide students with an opportunity to compare their physical intuition with the behaviour of the model and can sometimes offer unique advantages over other methods. This article presents various approaches to the development of qualitative simulation- based activities and describes how these activities can be addressed to students' common difficulties in basic electricity.

A spreadsheet macro as a teaching and learning aid for solving electrical networks The main method for solving electrical networks is based on matrix representation of the circuit. For any non trivial circuit this method is rather dfficult to follow since it involves a multi-stage solution procedure. This article describes a computerised environment, based on electronic spreadsheet macros, which was developed to facilitate the teaching and learning of solving electrical networks.

Modem technology offers powerful professional programs that were originally designed for scientific and practical engineering purposes. These programs are now easily operated by simple graphic interfaces. Even if they offer much more than we may need for instructional purposes, these tools can still be very useful as a support for teaching and learning both the subject matter domain and additional general skills from relatively early stages of scientific and technological education. This article describes the instructional approaches developed for using a professional electronic circuit analyzer program as a learning environment for students in basic electronics courses and discusses the general implications of using such programs for instruction.