New Perspectives in Science Education

The main changes in science education initiated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are associated with advances in a number of educational technologies: Microcomputer Based Lab; Modeling and Simulation; Mobile Technology; Networked Learning; Mixed-Reality Technology. The advances define the changes in science education and, consequently, gained broad attention of educational researchers.

Despite the abundance of opinions, approaches, and interpretations of the changes in science education, two key alternative interpretations explain the ICT integration phenomenon. The first interpretation considers ICT as a tool for enhancing classical science education by providing different emerging technological means. In contrast, an alternative interpretation considers ICT much wider than a tool. Supporters of this interpretation perceive thus digital science class as a new phenomenon in education, since the mentioned technologies changed the class qualitatively, brought to it a new essence, which is not just a sum of the added technologies. In our research, we have chosen the second interpretation as our assumption.

We propose a new conceptual model for study and analysis of the transformed science education. The proposed model is a modification of SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) epistemological framework for perception of technology. Our modified SAMR framework can be used for assessing ICT integration in science education. According to our hypothesis, the proposed modified SAMR, being used in teachers’ training, will affect the teachers' professional growth. Specifically, the teachers’ awareness about such kind of assessment opens a way for their reflexing and improving their own teaching, which in turn affects their learners.  An initial study of the proposed framework was conducted with a group of eighteen teachers in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University, who had undergone a specific training course. The initial study has confirmed our hypothesis and indicated the high efficiency of the proposed framework.