Open AccessChoices of pre-service science teachers laboratory environments: Hands-on or hands-off?
Author(s) -
Hasan Özgür Kapıcı,
Hakan Akçay
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
world journal on educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1309-0348
pISSN - 1309-1506
DOI - 10.18844/wjet.v10i1.3330
Subject(s) - science education , mathematics education , virtual laboratory , service (business) , psychology , medical education , engineering , multimedia , computer science , medicine , economy , economics
Learning in laboratories for students is not only crucial for conceptual understanding, but also contributes to gaining scientific reasoning skills. Following fast developments in technology, online laboratory environments have been improved considerably and nowadays form an attractive alternative for hands-on laboratories. The study was done in order to reveal pre-service science teachers’ preferences for hands-on or online laboratory environments. Participants of the study were 41 pre-service science teachers who were enrolled in a 13-week course on laboratory applications in science education. Findings showed that more than half of the pre-service science teachers would prefer to use hands-on laboratory environments for both conceptual teaching in their classrooms and to develop their students’ science process skills. The reasons behind their choices are discussed.Keywords: Online lab, hands-on lab, virtual lab, science and technology education, pre-service science teachers.* ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Hasan Özgur Kapıcı , Yıldız Teknik Ünivesitesi, Istanbul, TurkeyE-mail