Abstract
This study constructed the EIA (Experience–Inquiry–Application) model to evaluate its extent on promoting scientific inquiry activities under an AR learning environment in an upper primary science course setting. Two hundred and nine fifth-grade Chinese students were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions, as a quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate how the EIA model and the AR learning environment influence students’ science learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data suggest that students who participated in the EIA model under the AR setting performed the best; it also gives evidence to support that both the EIA model and the AR environment has significant positive effects on students’ performance in science learning. Qualitative data, in the form of a semi-structured interview with teachers and students, reveal that AR is able to be used for experiments that were originally deemed impossible, and it inspires students’ motivation for knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the EIA model empowers students in small-group collaboration, and is a good pedagogical tool to summarize units. EIA and AR form a bond of theory and technology and it strengthens students in manifold ways when it is deeply interwoven.
Highlights
Augmented reality (AR), the technology of integrating virtual objects with the real world, has the following three defining characteristics: (a) Combines real and virtual objects in a real environment; (b) Runs interactively and synchronously; (c) Registers real and virtual objects with each other [1,2]
Under the activities guided by the EIA model, students argued that they had more time for group cooperation and communication in class, and they made more connections from the scientific explorations in class to daily life
The AR learning environments allowed teachers and students to observe the earth from the perspective of real space and set up a special experimental platform for them to carry out experiments that could only be understood by students through videos, such as the Foucault pendulum
Summary
Augmented reality (AR), the technology of integrating virtual objects with the real world, has the following three defining characteristics: (a) Combines real and virtual objects in a real environment; (b) Runs interactively and synchronously; (c) Registers real and virtual objects with each other [1,2]. Based on these characteristics, AR has been proven to have great potential educational affordances which are especially useful in the sciences, including spatial ability, practical skills, scientific inquiry learning, and conceptual understanding [3]. Administrative guidelines from the Chinese Ministry of Education, especially Instructions on Strengthening and Reforming Experimental Teaching in Primary and Secondary Schools, states that
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