Cognitive evaluation of a technology-based learning environment for scientific education

Abstract

Computer equipment and a technology based environment intended for education and training using new communication and information technologies (ICTs) mofify the context of teaching and learning. We present a study concerning the learning of physics (mechanics) using the ‘MODELLINGSPACE’ technology based learning environment which allows pupils to create models. It is an open environment, which offers the possibility of working on entities (representing objects) and on their properties (representing concepts). Relations of a qualitative nature, semi-quantitative or quantitative, can connect the latter. From the analysis of answers collected from secondary school students, in France, we show that the use of the software can facilitate the comparisons between aspects of reality, their conceptualisation and their symbolic notations, provided that it intervenes jointly with the concrete realization of experiments.