The learning activity – Magnetic field

In this activity, the teachers tried to guide student to understand the concept of magnetic field in a “virtual experiment” by using information technology. Instructions had been given and students were asked to follow. Students were then expected to use spreadsheet to organize the data they got from the “virtual experiment”.

Learning theory:
the teachers tried to adopt both behaviorism and cognitive approaches to lead students to finish the learning activity.

Behaviorism:

Students were asked to follow clear but rigid steps to learn about the characteristics of magnetic fields. What the students can do is following the instructions, it may guarantee students could do what the teacher expected, but it limited the chance for students to explore the topic in other ways.  The tasks were focused on observing the result and the reasons why the result of the experiments were in this way. A sample report was given to the students and students were guided to finish the report by answering the guiding questions.

Cognitivism：
As the activity itself is like a kind of “virtual experiment”. Students tried to gain knowledge by exploring and doing the experiment, which I believed it is a kind of cognitive strategy. The activity also required students to analyze the experiment results by the patterns of what they can observe in the experiment.

Technology used:
Technology instructivist Model was applied:

The learning object was used to let student to observe how the different factors may affect the magnetic field. The object could be reused. However I don’t think it cant define as a cognitive tool, as it didn’t promote any constructive or collaborative learning here.

Strength:

·      Clear teaching aim.

·      A very clear instruction was given to students,  

·      Learning object is reusable

Weakness:

·      Limited chance for students to explore by themselves.

·      The task was individual work, lack of chance for discussion or collaboration.