Turkish students and teachers' views on the context of simulations: The example of solid pressure

Abstract

Simulations, which are very powerful educational tools on their own, enable concretization of abstract concepts and help students research the variables related to the subject matter of the simulation. Simulations provide powerful modelling environments that include the interaction processes of physics concepts, bring active participation of students into the learning process and support their learning by doing and living. This research was carried out to answer if simulatios with images from everyday life or abstract things yield different results in being more comprehensible, suitable for students' level, more beneficial, more interesting and helping permanent learning. To this end, "Solid Pressure" in the 10th grade physics curriculum in Turkey was taken as basis, and two different simulations were developed to help teach this topic. ADDIE design model was used during the preparation of the simulations. One simulation (human simulation) contained tangible variables from everyday life, such as shoe size, weight, height, while the other simulation (cube simulation) was prepared by using abstract variables such as surface area, elevation and heaviness. Then, views of physics teachers and 10th grade students regarding the simulations were taken through online survey. The participants included four physics teachers and 37 students. The survey consisted of open-ended items and the participants' answers were analyzed with content analysis. Each participant were coded for ensuring the privacy of paritipant, and each answer to questionnarie coded by two researchers It was found that most of the participants would prefer human simulation The students preferred the version which they found comprehensible, suitable for their level, more beneficial and interesting and which helped permanent learning. On the other hand, the factors affecting the teachers' preference included the simulation's ensuring learning and referring to everyday life. The students stated that both of the simulations were beneficial in learning the content and making the learning permanent as well as developing a positive attitude towards the lesson and the topic of learning. As a conclusion, the two simulations did not vary with their context in terms of benefits for students, but they were dissimilar in suitability for the purpose.