Comparison of the effects of 1:1 and 1:m CSCL environments with virtual manipulatives for scientific inquiry-based learning: a counterbalanced quasi-experimental study

ABSTRACT

Digital instructional tools, such as virtual manipulatives, have been widely adopted as an enhanced approach to inquiry-based learning. However, the optimal ratio of mobile devices to students in instructional settings remain controversial. This research introduced a counterbalanced quasi-experiment to compare the learning performance and group-process satisfaction (GS) of primary school students under various settings of mobile device-student ratios (1:1 or 1:m) and external scripts (ES, with or without). A total of 128 sixth graders (11 drop-outs in the second-round experiment) in four elementary-school classes adopted physics simulations on tablet PCs as virtual manipulatives (VMs). Group worksheets and posttests were administered during and after the inquiry process to assess students’ inquiry performance and knowledge acquisition. The analyses revealed that students under the 1:m condition significantly outperformed their peers in the 1:1 condition in both subterms, concept understanding (CU) and problem-solving (PS), but no significant difference was found in knowledge acquisition (KA). ES showed no effect on students’ learning performance. VMs that students used in collaborative tasks operated separately on each tablet PC, which may have distracted learners’ joint attention. Hence, the collaboration patterns were observed and discussed. Four potential collaboration patterns are discussed at the end of this paper.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile learning
• CSCL
• science education
• virtual manipulatives
• device-student ratios

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study is funded by the International Joint Research Project of Huiyan International College, Faculty of Education Beijing Normal University (ICER202101).

Notes on contributors

Cixiao Wang

Cixiao Wang is a lecturer at the Faculty of Education in Beijing Normal University. Her research interests include mobile learning and collaborative learning.

Jingxin Wang

Jingxin Wang is an assistant researcher at the School of International Education, Shandong University. Her main research interests include blended learning and teacher education.

Zhu Shi

Zhu Shi is a doctoral candidate at Graduate School of Education in Peking University. His main research interests include educational game and science education.

Feng Wu

Feng Wu is a professor at the Graduate School of Education in Peking University. His research interests include digital learning and lifelong learning.