The use of Interactive Computer Simulations with regard to access
to Education – a social justice issue.
Kaheru SJM1, Mpeta M1, Kriek J2
1 University
of Venda
2University
of South Africa
samkaheru@univen.ac.za; m.mpeta@univen.ac.za; kriekj@unisa.ac.za
1
The use of Interactive Computer Simulations with regard to access to
Education – a social justice issue.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the use of interactive computer simulations as a way of
making education accessible to everyone. Interactive Computer simulations are used
to reduce the mental effort used in learning skills and knowledge. Data was
collected from Grade 11 learners in physical sciences. The topic of study was
geometrical optics. Learners using teacher-centred talk and chalk are compared
with those using interactive computer simulations in a teacher-centred environment.
The results show a large effect size of 0.84 for knowledge and 0.48 for skills in
favour of the use of interactive computer simulations. These results are significant
when using the t-test for the comparison of means at p = 0.05. It is on this backdrop
that the paper argues that interactive computer interactions should be used to
increase the three elements of inclusion, relevance and democratic using the
capability social justice theories as expounded by Tikly and Barrett (2011)
Keywords:
Interactive computer simulations, virtual learning, social justice, science education,
physics education and teaching and learning.
Introduction
Improvements to education access characterise the South African democratic
dispensation as one of the means to bring about social transformation in the country.
In the context of developing countries, information and communication technology
(ICT) has the potential and capacity to overcome barriers such as equity and redress
(Department of Education, 2003). Technology, therefore, can be used to strengthen
2
student learning and enhance pedagogy (Dede, 2000) and also be used effectively
as a cognitive tool for teaching and learning in the classroom (Bruce & Levin, 2001;
Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000).
As South Africa is in process of social transformation, ICT can be used to bring
about that change. This is reflected in the vision outlined in the Action Plan for
Schools for 2015, “[c]omputers in the school are an important medium through which
teachers and learners access information” (Department of Basic Education, 2010,
p.12). This paper investigates the use of Interactive Computer Simulations (ICS) with
regard to education access. The paper will argue that access to education is a social
justice issue, and that ICS can provide the means to strengthen student learning.
Background for the study
With the onset of democracy in 1994 and an African National Congress (ANC) led
government, South Africa was faced with the main task of social transformation in
the country. “A number of policies have been implemented and legislation
promulgated to create a framework for transformation in education and training”
(Department of Basic Education, 2010). A number of legislations have had that
focus, for example the 1996 Constitution of South Africa which ‘requires education to
be transformed and democratised in accordance with the values of human dignity,
equality, human rights and freedom, non-racism and non-sexism’ (Department of
Basic Education, 2010) and pledges to “heal the divisions of the past and establish a
society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights”
(RSA, 1996, p. 3). Thus the transformation process was set up to redress
imbalances of the past, among which was to provide equality in terms of providing
quality education. The South African Schools Act is also drafted to promote access,
quality and democratic governance in the schooling system.
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The Education Policy Consortium (EPC) which has been involved in a five-year
Research Programme on Democracy, Human Rights and Social Justice in Education
in South Africa recognises the importance of research to inform policy (Malcolm et al,
2008). In 2010, Social Surveys Africa prepared a submission to the Portfolio
Committee on Basic Education on the issue of access to education in South Africa.
Some of the major findings indicated that while there were increased opportunities to
attend school, and high attendance in grades 1-9, the system was still characterized
by high drop-out rates and school delays which affected enrolment at Further
Education and Training level and hence completion rates in Grade 12. One of the
policy implications in this submission is the need for improved education quality
(Russell, Meny-Gibert, & Parenzee, 2009)
Furthermore, a Report of the Task Team for the Review of the Implementation of the
National Curriculum Statement (DoE, 2009) highlights the poor training of South
African teachers, therefore, as outlined in the Strategic Plan 2010-2013, the ‘number
one goal’ is the ‘improvement of teaching and learning quality’ in the basic education
system.
In order to improve the teaching and learning quality in basic education, an
exploratory study was done with grade 11 learners to determine if the use of
interactive simulations will indeed improve their learning and give access to quality
teaching to address social injustice.
Literature review
Review of social justice theory illustrates the usefulness of this theory in determining
the extent of participation by all, in our case, education. Participation in education is
only possible when one has access to it. Furthermore, expanding education
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opportunities to provide the majority’s access to it should go hand in hand with
quality education. This paper does not attempt to define quality education but the
study investigated performance of learners in physical science as a result of using
ICS. The cognitive load theory was used to reveal what leads to long term memory
of skills and knowledge. The skills and knowledge going to the long term memory
depend on the load which the learner experiences and as a result it is important to
use the limited memory resources judiciously. The use of ICS was reviewed in
relation to its effect on learning outcomes, such as performance in a test. This paper
argues that use of ICS enhances performance by reducing learning burden. ICS can
then be seen as providing access to quality education by making learning less of a
burden. The conclusion therefore, is that if ICS are used and reach all learners,
social justice can be promoted.
Social justice
Social justice has multiple definitions depending on the context and perspective from
which it is looked at. While acknowledging this diversity in definition, we regard social
justice in education as means of offering learners and teachers [and all stakeholders
in schools] opportunities to recognise and begin to redress societal oppression and
marginalization by providing quality education in order to offset effects of segregation
and close the social divide (Garii & Rule, 2009, p. 490). Quality education should be
provided equitably to all learners irrespective of their socio-economic status, gender,
age, political affiliation, race, religion, and any factor that separates individuals or
groups of people.
This paper reviews an approach to social justice adopted by Tikly and Barrett (2011)
which sets out a theoretical framework based on the work of Nancy Fraser and
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others on global justice. Setting out their understanding in relation to education
quality, Tikly and Barrett discuss the social justice issue from both the human capital
and rights perspectives. They state that a social justice perspective can help to
refocus attention on the nature of a good quality education and of the importance of
public debate at all levels in defining a good quality education and how it can be
evaluated (Tikly & Barrett, 2011, p. 4). Citing Subrahmanian (2002) and Unterhalter,
(2007) they show that human rights approach to education quality is interested in the
role of education in securing rights to education, rights in education and rights
through education, thereby, human rights discourses have implications for education
quality. To this they add that the human rights approach further promotes teaching
and learning strategies broadly identified as learner-centred and democratic. This
approach gives rise to three inter-related dimensions, that is, those of inclusion,
relevance and democracy (Tikly & Barrett, 2011). Using UNICEF’s model, these
writers link the ‘child-centred’ principle to child-centred processes of teaching and
learning in which children are active agents, hence, the models of good quality
education within the rights-based approach have enabled the understanding of
issues relating to inclusion, relevance and democracy.
Expansion of education access often spells quantity in education but “schools exist
in specific socio-cultural contexts and hence, quality education must be responsive
to the lived realities of learners and educators in those contexts” (Tikly & Barrett,
2011, p.6). The challenge remains in trying to define the what, who and how of
education quality, that is not only what “different capabilities might look like at
different levels but also how they can be measured and how the success of
education systems in developing these capabilities can be evaluated”. This study is
adding its voice to the debate by looking at the capability of ICT, specifically ICS to
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improve education quality by promoting access to learning. Use of ICS is in science,
more specifically in geometrical optics could indicate the potential for both ICT and
science to be tools for societal change. Unlike in the past apartheid government
when “there was a policy of exclusion from science education for black learners”
(James & Wilson, 2002), science is now taught in all the schools in South Africa with
the aim of promoting scientific literacy (Department of Education, 2002). However,
South African learners’ performance in science has been poor as indicated in
international competitions like Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS). In South Africa some of the factors affecting performance in science
have been identified as low socio-economic status, lack of resources in schools, and
insufficient English language skills (Howie, 2002). ICS can in such a context, provide
access to learning science where resources such as scientific equipment and
laboratories are lacking, as well as for learners with low socio-economic status. With
increased access to all learners, one form of social injustice is redressed.
The use of interactive computer simulations
Interactive simulations is a two way interaction between the learners and a response
displayed by the computer by means of images that are not static but are able to
move and also respond to the mouse or key board movements (Aravind & Heard,
2010).
Esquembre (2002) discusses five ways of using technology as: (a) tools for the
acquisition and manipulation of data; (b) means of accessing Multimedia software;
(c) micro-worlds and simulations (d) modelling tools; and finally (e) telematics and
internet tools. The whole world is linked by communication and internet and many
resources are available in real time. These can be accessed in real time and also
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link up the professionals with the novices in real space and time. Learners or novices
can get world class data from the actual scientists who are producing it. Some
institutions of higher learning are involved in this where their lectures and academic
activities are disseminated in real time to a global audience where there is a network
(Barron, Doody, Cassucio, & Henderson, 2004; Nedic, Machotka, & Nafalski, 2003).
ICT, or specifically simulations, has been used to avoid the high drop-out rate of first
year students in Physics in tertiary education institutions. For example, in a Spanish
university in Madrid, it is asserted that the “interest of students in computer
applications has been used to improve their chances of success in their studies”
(Martinez, Carbonell, Florez, & Amaya, 2008, p. 2). The report notes that the use of
these simulations has helped to increase students’ success and reduced their
dropout rate as Martinez et al (2008) report. Improvements have also been found in
a study at the University of Colorado (Finkelstein & Pollock, 2008)
This confirms the point we are making that engaging the learners actively leads to
their better performance.
Research questions
This paper argues that the use of ICS enhances learner’s performance by reducing
the learning burden. In this regard, ICS should be considered as a social justice tool
since it has the potential of reducing the learning burden while increasing actual
learning.
The main research question therefore is:
Is the effect of Interactive computer simulations (ICS) on learning significant?
8
In order to answer the main research question, the following sub question has been
formulated:
To what extent will the use of interactive computer simulations affect learners’
answers to items in a test of skills of describing relationships between
variables in geometrical optics in physical sciences in grade 11?
Theoretical Framework
This paper considers three theories for the theoretical framework, two theories from
ICT and media while the third is from social justice.
The theoretical framework in Figure 1 is based on Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory
(Paas, Renkl, & Sweller, 2003) and Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning
(Mayer & Chandler, 2001; Stull & Mayer, 2007) as well as an approach to social
justice adopted by Tikly and Barrett (2011) where the two views of human rights and
human capital are looked at. This approach is based on the social justice
perspective for quality education focussing on three aspects: inclusion, relevance
and democratic.
9
The theoretical framework as noted uses Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory Mayer’s
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and Tikly and Garrett’s Social Justice
perspective for quality education and this is represented in the diagram below
Interactive computer simulations
Extraneous
load
Intrinsic
load
Germane
load
Achievement
Skills
Inclusion
Skills
Relevance
Achievement
Democratic
Quality education
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework of Interactive Computer Simulations for Social Justice
10
In the model drawn in Figure 1, Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory and Mayer’s
Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning form the top part in the dashed circle of the
theoretical framework. When learners are introduced to new learning, their working
memory resources are limited and as a result they use the limited working memory
to learn the available information. Whether they process the information, according
to the Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory will depend on the interplay between the
teaching strategies or instructional method and the nature of the interplay will
determine how much germane memory is available in the working memory for
learners to use to work on what they are learning. If the learners spend a lot of
memory on the teaching strategy and less on germane they will process less, form
fewer schemas which will not lead to deep understanding. This means more working
memory resources have been expended on extraneous memory and hence less on
the germane memory. The more the working memory is available for germane
processing, the more the chances learners will form schemas which will lead to the
schema going to long term memory which has unlimited capacity. Mayer’s Cognitive
Multimedia theory of learning has three main important points in its theoretical
framework. The two channels of visual and audio in which information comes in are
two separate and independent entities and they are limited in terms of what
information they can hold (or contain). If the instructional method, directs this visual
and / or auditory channels in such a way that they lead to the germane load, so
much the better. A concern would be if most of what is to be learnt is used up by the
instructional method then little learning takes place. Also, care should be taken that
there is no overload of the two channels, since if an overload occurs then only a
certain small part of information presented will be taken in to the germane part of the
working memory. Active processing of the information is done by germane and this
11
helps to form schemas, if learners are in a position to interact with the instructional
material then they are actually learning.
It is posited that if it is easy for knowledge and skills to go to the long term memory,
then ICS will increase INCLUSION of many learners and lead to quality education.
With the increased access, and possibly relevance as a result of ICS making it
concrete for the learners, one can argue that relevance is also enabled. The sheer
numbers of learners being able to access and understand what they are being taught
would lead to a real democratic access so that learners are not just being coerced
into participation in activities they do not know.
ICS can be looked at as an enabler for quality education as it is inclusive of three
capabilities, inclusion, relevance and democratic all components of social justice.
Methodology
Population
The population of the research is the Grade 11 learners of physical science in
Vhembe district in Limpopo Province.
Sample and sampling
A purposive sample was drawn from this population. It was a purposive sample
(Kothari, 2004) since one of the criteria for inclusion was that would be able to work
on the project right to the end. The most likely participants that would work up to end
of the programme, therefore, were selected.
Four schools which had limited access to laboratories and equipment were selected,
and the participants were the Grade 11 physical science classes. There were 100
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learners who participated in the research with 44 in the control group and 56 in the
treatment group.
The unit of analysis in this research were the learner and what was considered was
how they performed in a test of achievement.
The instruments
The instrument used was Test of describing relationships among variables- which
was developed based on various instruments.
The tests used included: Kazeni’s instrument for science process skills (Kazeni,
2005); Test of Integrated Process skills TIPS (Burns, Okey, & Wise, 1985) and Test
of Integrated Science Process Skills and the Limpopo Province common tests and
examinations. The guiding content was as in the National Curriculum Statement
content of physical science (Department of Education, 2008).
The test had items which were dealing with skills and also those with achievement.
The achievement items had been included to enable insight into whether the
learners could have learnt what had been taught. The skills items were for the
purposes of determining whether they had gained science process skills.
A 26 item test was developed and four specialists were asked to rank the various
items with regard to content validity and appropriate level for the group to use them.
Two specialists were practising Physical science educators one was a Chief
Examiner and the other with over 20 years of teaching the subject and had
previously been awarded the Best mathematics and Physical Science teacher of
South Africa. The other two were Science Education Professors. To establish the
13
validity, the Spearman Rank formula as modified by Ogunniyi was used and
corrected for the tied ranking and a validity of 0.873 was calculated.
The instrument was pilot tested for its language clarity by using a group of learners
with regard to the ease of understanding of what was written. The learners worked
on the questions and indicated the level of the language. As a result of remarks from
the panel, the language was amended in four questions and two had to be removed
as these questions / items were judged to be higher than the level of the learners.
The reliability of the instrument was determined through another pilot study using
another school far away from where the actual research was going to be conducted
in a different circuit, and a test-retest reliability was calculated using the Statistical
Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) and this was found to be 0.83.
There was a pre-test for all the participants to establish what their pre-knowledge in
terms of geometrical optics was.
The simulations used for this research were from the PhET software (McKagan, et
al., 2008) which are available freely on the internet.
Research design
The Research design was the Switching replications design (Alexander & Winne,
2006; Trochim, 2006) as indicated below:
N
O X1
O
O
N
O
O X2 O
The above design is a quasi-experimental design using an intact group. It is a
Switching replications design wherein we have a pre-test, post-test 1 and post-test 2
14
treatments. The strength of this design lies in its having both the treatment and
control with the treatments coming at different times. The switching replications
design used was able to cater for the varied educator, school experiences and
personal factors in both treatment and control conditions. There were four schools
and in each of the schools the prevailing conditions were different. The educators’
teaching strategies were quite different from one situation of work to another due to
preferred teaching styles and other personal differences, however, they had the
same training in the use of ICS The treatment, X1, means Interactive computer
simulations were used by the educator who normally teaches the class. In
treatment, X2, simulations of a different kind were used for the second group in the
second part of the unit. Educators were told to teach as they normally teach except
when using ICS. The switching replications design accommodated the differences
by using the same educator in the experimental and control groups at different
stages of the research.
Two schools started by being taught the topic using simulations and the latter part of
the topic was by taught normally using the talk and chalk strategy. The other two
schools started by using the teaching strategy the educator uses in a day to day
environment and in the latter part of the topic they used simulations
Data Collection
The data was collected using the same test namely the Test of describing
relationships between variables. This test was initially administered as pre-test
before the learners had learnt the section on geometrical optics, then after the first
part of geometrical optics was taught referred to as post–test 1. Learners wrote the
test 4 days after they had been taught over 5 – 6 periods and this stage is referred to
15
as Part 1. The lessons included the definitions of lens, how different images are
formed in diverging and converging lenses.
The second part comprised of lessons that on application of the lens. This included
sections on the eye, telescope and magnifying glasses. After Part 2 the same test
referred to as ‘post-test 2’ was written. Learners did not receive their scripts after the
tests and therefore did not know whether they had done very well or not nor were
they given the answers.
Data analysis
The following is the descriptive statistics from the data collected:
Graph 1: Graph of average of total marks for the pre, post 1 and post 2 tests
16
Graph 2: Graph of the average of the total marks for achievement tests in pre, post1 and post 2 tests
Graph 3: Graph of the average of the skills marks for the pre, post1 and post2 tests
Pre-test Control
Post test1 Control
Post test2 Control
Mean
8.84
10.24
9.82
Standard Error
0.36
0.41
0.46
Standard Deviation
2.38
2.66
2.62
Sample Variance
5.66
7.06
6.84
Count
43
42
33
Table 1: Table of descriptive statistics for the control group in Test of describing relationships
Pre-test Treatment
Post test1 Treatment
Post test2 Treatment
Mean
9.93
11.2
12.17
Standard Error
0.35
0.37
0.46
Median
10
11
12
Mode
8
13
13
Standard Deviation
2.60
2.72
3.34
17
Sample Variance
6.77
7.42
11.17
Count
55
55
52
Table 2: Table of descriptive statistics for the treatment group in Test of describing relationships
Three measures were used to determine the learning gains: Hake’s normalized gain,
Effect Size using Cohen’s d and the statistical significance using the t-test.
Hake’s normalised gain
Hake’s normalised gain is a calculation that tries to compare the treatment and
control groups in an intervention and calculates the various gains as a result of the
treatment group compared to the control group.
The Effect size is a measure of the usefulness of the intervention without trying to
assess the statistical significance. It is a measure that assesses how effective is the
intervention that has been used.
We used Hake’s normalized gain for the analysis, where Hake’s normalized gain is
given by =
Or as a general formula =
Selvaratnam, 2008)
18
(Molefe, Lemmer, & Smit, 2005, p. 51)
(Drummond &
Graph 4: Graph of Hake’s normalised gain
Graph 4: In the case of use of Hake’s normalized gain, the changes as a result of
ICS was small and they indicate only changes consistent with teacher-centred
instruction showing that the research was indeed using teacher centredness. From
the skills aspect we saw small improvements of 0.135 and for the knowledge or
achievement it was 0.27.
Effect size
The Effect size is a measure of the usefulness of the intervention without trying to
assess the statistical significance.
The effect size,
d, =
(Molefe, Lemmer, &
Smit, 2005, p. 51),
Which is also given as
(Höffler & Leutner,
2007, p. 726) and in a similar formula (Powell, Diamond, Burchinal, & Koehler,
2010).
19
Graph 5: Graph of Effect sizes due to achievement, skills and whole test
Graph 5, uses effect sizes to determine the effects. An effect size finding of 0.48
was determined with respect to skills improvement. This was a large measure taking
into cognisance the fact that a 0.2 effect size could lead to a change of 50% to 58%
“a worthwhile effect” (Rennie, 1998, p. 245).
t-test
For the purposes of this paper, it is important to assess the statistical significance of
the intervention and hence the use of the t-test to determine whether the readings
could have been a result of chance.
The t-test for the two sample assuming unequal variances was used to test whether
the differences between the means is significant and we results are indicated in
Table 1 below:
Table 1: Table for t-test for the two sample assuming unequal variances
Items on
Mean treatment Mean Control p
t
Skills only
5.58
5.12
0.24
1.18
Achievement only 6.60
4.7
0.000026
4.30
All test items
12.17
9.82
0.00026
1.7
P – Probability; t – t statistic, df – no of applicable cases (degrees of freedom)
df
80
75
79
The items from the Table above show that when all items of the test are used, the
difference between the means is significant (at 0.00026 which is less than 0.05) and
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there is a marked difference between the group that used interactive simulations at
the beginning of the unit and the other group.
With regard to achievement, we also note it is significant with p = 0.000026 and the t
statistic is 4.30 and therefore the difference caused by the interactive computer
simulations was significant with regard to the intervention being done in the first part
of the experiment.
In conclusion, when all three measurements were considered with regard to
achievement, which could be associated with knowledge and comprehension,
interactive computer simulations are effective as noted by the normalized Hake’s
change of 0.27 less than 0.3, which is understandable as the interaction was in a
teacher-centred situation. This result when combined with the Effect size of 0.84
shows a big difference that could result in an improvement in geometrical optics for
several learners. The major effect on achievement shows that inclusion would be
served with regard to social justice. This effect size could also mean that a
democratic provisioning or equality and accessibility would also be served.
Is the effect of ICS on learning significant?
In this research learning was looked at as consisting of two components, the skills
and achievement. Achievement is the knowledge component and skills is the
science process skills.
(a)
In the use of Hake’s normalized gain, the changes as a result of ICT were
small and they indicated only changes consistent with teacher-centred
instruction showing that the research was indeed using teacher centredness.
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(b)
Using another measure of effect size, a medium significant finding 0.48 was
made with respect to skills improvement. This was large measure taking into
cognisance the fact that a 0.2 effect size could lead to a change of 50% to 58%
“ a worthwhile effect” (Rennie, 1998, p. 245).
(c)
When effect size was used to test achievement it was found that the effect size
was 0.84, this is a very high effect. In terms of knowledge this is high and it
was higher than that alluded to by Molefe et al of 0.2 (Molefe, Lemmer, & Smit,
2005). One of the reasons the authors give for the low value was the number
of learners who were not used to computers. Six years after their paper, there
is higher use of mobile phones and also computers, hence this point may not
have relevance to this investigation.
Using the measures of achievement and skills we see that there is a great
improvement as is demonstrated by this research in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c)
above.
Conclusion
The results show improved test achievement for the learners in the study when using
interactive computer simulations. This could suggest that simulations scaffold
learning and reduces learning time. Mooij (2004) state ICT as among the tools,
together with curriculum, instructional and management that could improve school
practice at different levels in coordinated and empirically controlled ways. Mooij
found out that generally the results of the multilevel theorizing, education innovation
in school practice, and software development seem to be promising from the
perspective of using ICT to facilitate educational transformation and optimization. As
discussed earlier, learning is scaffolded when learners are actively engaged during
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the learning process. Simulations offer hands-on activities for learners where every
learner has an opportunity to actively engage with the process. With consideration
that quality education is a social justice issue within the human rights approach, we
consider provision of good quality education as a responsibility of the State towards
each child. As stated by Smit and Oosthuizen (2011) effective basic education has
the potential to give each child the experience of human dignity and teach the child
to acknowledge and respect others’ human dignity. Simulations can provide access
to quality education provided the process is well coordinated and empirically
controlled, together with curriculum, instruction and management practices. The
study did not consider the physical science content in terms of integrating the social
justice aspects. This could be a matter for further investigations so that where
necessary and possible, social aspects can be strengthened within the subject
content.
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