Usability of Electronic Instructional Tools in the Physics Classroom

Abstract

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming valuable tools to help improve education, especially during teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. In this regard, we conducted this study to explore the usability of ICT tools in Physics taught courses. To collect data, we used classroom observation protocol for undergraduate STEM to assess how teachers and learners spend time on classroom activities among day and boarding schools and urban and rural schools. We also surveyed physics teachers after a short workshop on the use of PhET simulations and YouTube videos for teaching optics to reveal their workability and usefulness. As a result, we found that teachers in the day schools guide and assign more work to their learners, allow them to work in groups more than those in boarding schools. Similarly, learners in rural schools spend much time working in groups more than their colleagues in urban schools. However, teachers in urban schools spend much time guiding their learners than teachers in rural schools. Teachers use more of textbooks among various instructional tools. Teachers were not aware of and used to PhET simulations and YouTube videos in physics class; however, after the workshop, they conceived them as convenient electronic instructional tools that can accelerate the active learning of Optics. Since these resources are free to access and easy to use, we highly recommend teachers to use them in their daily teaching and learning activities.

A case study on chemistry classroom practices in the Rwandan secondary schools

“…(2020a) found that the physics classroom is reformed at 53%. Collaborative learning is integrated at 61% for students at day schools, which is used more than their counterparts in boarding schools ( Ndihokubwayo et al., 2020b ).…”

“…For instance, students at boarding spend the night at school. In contrast, students are limited in study concentration at day school as they spend day time at school and night at their homes ( Ndihokubwayo et al., 2020b ).…”

“…Even though COPUS was designed for undergraduate education, Akiha et al. (2018) and Ndihokubwayo et al. (2020b) demonstrated its relevance in secondary schools, which raised our confidence in its use in lower secondary schools.…”

Classroom observation data collected to document the implementation of physics competence-based curriculum in Rwanda

“…However, [2] suggested combining codes such Lec, RtW, and D/V as “Presenting,” FUp, PQ, CQ, AnQ, MG, and 1o1 as “Guiding,” Adm as “Admin,” and W and O as Other” for teacher's activities while L as “Receiving,” AnQ, SQ, WC, and SP as “Talking to Class,” Ind, CG, WG, and OG as “Working,” and O and W as Other were combined for students activities. The grouping of these codes easy to compare instructional styles and maybe formulated depending on the research focus, such as the investigation of clicker questions [4] , active learning techniques [3] , instructional style [5] , and so on.…”

“…Thus, 27 classes were observed from schools located in Kigali city, while 15 were observed in the eastern province. Likewise, 35 classes were observed from schools where students stay at school (day and night) while seven classes were observed in schools where students go to school in the daytime and spend the night at their home [4] .…”