Affordances of augmented reality technology for science education: Views of secondary school students and science teachers

Abstract

Using augmented reality (AR) in science education is one of the popular topics that have been researched in recent years. However, more qualitative studies are needed as the contributions of using AR in science education to the learning experience and knowledge construction can be better understood through qualitative research. Therefore, it is important to examine the opinions of teachers and students using AR on their experiences. This study aims to reveal their views on AR technology in terms of their perceived learning, interest, attitude, and experience. A case study design was employed. The research was conducted with 40 students in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in a secondary school and 10 science teachers. In the research, the SPACE 4D application was used for 3 weeks within the scope of “Sun, Earth, and Moon”, “Solar System and Eclipses,” and “Solar System and Beyond” subjects. The interviews were held with all participants after the 12‐h lesson. Students stated that AR increases their interest and motivation, facilitates learning, and prevents boredom. In addition, teachers stated that AR increases attention, the permanence of knowledge and curiosity, as well as concretizes the abstract concepts and is useful. In this regard, this technology can be used in science lessons to motivate students to the lesson, to help students overcome their prejudices, to change students' attitudes, and to provide more effective results.

Augmented reality technology in teaching about physics: a systematic review of opportunities and challenges

“…Conclusions about students' affective domain of learning in the context of AR have been drawn through interviews, written surveys, observations, and even EEG measurements. It has been found that students who learned with AR were more intensively engaged in classroom discussions [36,39,77,85,117,120,122,131], were more focused [10,54,78,110,117], showed more enjoyment and interest [10,36,43,46,54,62,68,75,83,85,89,105,112,115,117,119,131] and more often overcame prejudices against the course [36]. Additionally, in the study by Arici et al the teacher reported that students liked to learn within an AR environment because it reminded them of a game environment [36].…”

“…It has been found that students who learned with AR were more intensively engaged in classroom discussions [36,39,77,85,117,120,122,131], were more focused [10,54,78,110,117], showed more enjoyment and interest [10,36,43,46,54,62,68,75,83,85,89,105,112,115,117,119,131] and more often overcame prejudices against the course [36]. Additionally, in the study by Arici et al the teacher reported that students liked to learn within an AR environment because it reminded them of a game environment [36]. Some studies have reported students' prolonged motivation for learning based on their prior AR learning experience [122].…”

“…Some studies have reported students' prolonged motivation for learning based on their prior AR learning experience [122]. Therefore, it is not surprising that students and teachers in some studies expressed their positive attitudes towards AR, their willingness to continue using AR in the future and recommending it to others [36,48,85,106,119,121]. Alvarez-Marin et al found that students were willing to use AR apps if they found them useful, not just easy to use [34].…”

“…Similarly, in the study by Phon et al [88] about learning astronomical topics, significant learning gains were found for the AR group and the gains were significantly larger for low-spatial ability than for high-spatial-ability students. Arici et al found that students think that AR technology helped them to reduce abstractedness of knowledge and to observe structures (celestial bodies) that are otherwise unobservable in the classroom environment [36]. Çakıroğlu et al [43] reported that in creating concept maps about lunar and solar eclipse, AR-generated visualizations triggered schemas which helped the students to connect different elements of knowledge.…”

On the Multimodal Resolution of a Search Sequence in Virtual Reality

“…Indeed, Meta's heavy involvement in the VR market hints at a plan to facilitate tele-copresent social interaction between physically distant users [34]. Moreover, with the recent relevance of telemediated education [35,36], mixed reality social situations are likely to become more ubiquitous [37,38], with substantive consequences for learning [39].…”