Investigating primary school students’ epistemic beliefs in augmented reality-based inquiry learning

ABSTRACT

The impact of Augmented Reality (AR)-based science learning on cognitive development has been established, but the effect of AR on the improvement of students’ academic performance remains inconclusive. Additionally, while epistemic beliefs as a significant determinant on student learning outcomes is well-documented, there is little research in AR-supported science learning exploring the effectiveness of AR activities on students’ epistemic beliefs. This mixed-methods study investigates the relationship between students’ engagement in an AR-based inquiry learning environment and their epistemic beliefs. It aims to examine if students’ engagement in AR activities has an impact on their epistemic beliefs and academic performance, as well as which aspects of students’ epistemic beliefs may be affected by the designed activities. 159 fifth-grade students participated in the AR activities for two months. The findings revealed that students’ academic performance improved significantly, evidenced in the pre- and post-tests. While students’ perceived engagement did not significantly affect their academic performance, students’ perceived engagement in the activities did influence their epistemic beliefs, particularly in the dimension of justification of knowledge in science. The study identified features of learners’ interactions in the AR learning environment and these findings provide insights into potential areas for improvement in AR-based science learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• inquiry-based learning
• science learning
• epistemic beliefs
• primary school

Disclosure statement

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

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants/their parents.

Consent to publish

The project has research ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board of Nanyang Technological University. The NTU IRB reference number for this study is IRB-2020-04-037. The author affirms that all participants provided informed consent for the publication of the images.

Additional information

Funding

This study is funded by the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with project reference number: OER 26/19 WLK and Ministry of Education (MOE) Social Science and Humanities Research (SSHR) Fellowship for the project MOE SSHRF 8/22 WY [MOE2021-SSHR-009].

Notes on contributors

Yun Wen

Yun Wen ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor in the Learning Sciences and Assessment Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore). Her research investigates how people learn through interaction and conversations in multimodal environments, and how to use technology (e.g. representational tools or augmented reality techniques) to spark and support collaborative learning.

Chun Lai

Chun Lai ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong. She is working on self-directed language learning with technology, and technology-enhanced language teaching.

Sujin He

Sujin He ([email protected]) is a Research Assistant at NIE. Prior to this, she was involved in curatorial research for arts and heritage organisations. She has worked on research projects on school autonomy and leadership, informal learning spaces and making-centred learning.

Yiyu Cai

Yiyu Cai ([email protected]) is senior faculty with NTU. He heads the Computer-aided Engineering Labs and directs the Strategic Research Program of VR & Soft Computing. He is also deputy director of The Center of Augmented & Virtual Reality.

Chee Kit Looi

Chee-Kit Looi ([email protected]) is the Co-Director of the Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE) at NTU. He was the Founding Head of Learning Sciences Lab, the first research centre devoted to the study of the sciences of learning in the Asia-Pacific region. His research in education is characterised by producing outcomes, processes or artefacts that impact practice.

Longkai Wu

Longkai Wu ([email protected]) is a professor at the National Engineering Research Centre for E-Learning & MOE (PRC) Educational Informatisation Strategy Research Base, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, Central China Normal University. He has been working on classroom inquiry to enable teachers and students for a deeper understanding of science subjects, promoting paradigms of immersive learning, inquiry-based learning in different classroom endeavours.