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Guidance Degree of the Task in the Exploration of a Computational Simulation

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Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence/efficacy of different kinds of task guidance, in the learning of the changes of the physical state of matter at a microscopic level, with the exploration of computational simulations by 5th-grade pupils. The study has two research questions: (1) “How different task guidance degrees given to pupils, as support to simulation exploration, influence the learning process?” (2) “What evaluation does the student ascribe to the autonomy granted by the teacher?”. The study was carried out with four groups. Three guidance degrees of the task was applied by using different worksheets.

Data about the teaching and learning process was collected making use, particularly, of a pre-test and post-test. From the analysis of results, we conclude that learning occurred with all the three guidance degrees. However, the guidance degree of the task influenced learning and conceptual comprehension. The group submitted to a minimal guidance degree obtained lower results than the groups that had moderate and high guidance, and the groups submitted to moderate guidance degree had the best learning results. There were also small differences in the students’ perception of the autonomy provided by the teacher.

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Correspondence to Fátima A. A. Araújo .

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Araújo, F.A.A., Bernardino Lopes, J., Soares, A.A., Cravino, J. (2019). Guidance Degree of the Task in the Exploration of a Computational Simulation. In: Tsitouridou, M., A. Diniz, J., Mikropoulos, T. (eds) Technology and Innovation in Learning, Teaching and Education. TECH-EDU 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 993. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20954-4_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20954-4_24

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20954-4

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