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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article 6 (Dec., 2012) |
Data triangulation (survey data triangulating interviews’ data and lecturers’ interviews data triangulating students’ interviews data) was utilised in this research to disclose similar important findings. ICT applications as learning resources and communication to support Physics learning (except e-mail) were not regularly used by the lecturers. MS PowerPoint and some Physics simulation software, which belonged to the instructional organization of learning category, were very commonly and frequently used in Physics courses in the selected Vietnamese universities. The pedagogy behind the use of MS PowerPoint and the software was to simulate and help students visualise Physics phenomena and experiments. This pedagogical view underpinning the ICT applications related to a cognitive constructivist perspective.
According to Peeraer & Van Petegem (2011), in the school year 2008-2009 when the data for their study was collected, the use of ICTs for teaching of lecturers was not quite regular. Among the applications of ICTs for teaching (e.g. presentation, electronic communication and classroom management), the application of ICTs for use in presentations was most common (16.8% of the lectures stated the use it regular; 83.2% of the lecturers never/rarely/sometimes used ICTs for presentation in their teaching). Other applications such as electronic communication and classroom management systems were less regularly used. For example, only 11% of the lecturers stated they used electronic communication regularly in their teaching, for applying ICT in classroom management only 4.8%.
The result of the current research showed that three years after the survey of Peeraer & Van Petegem (2011), the applications of ICTs in teaching practice seemed to become more frequent. Among the applications, ICTs for presentation was still the most popular application, with 60% of lecturers involved in this research claiming that they implemented software and hardware to support face-to-face lectures every week; 83% of them used MS PowerPoint for presentation 53% used e-mail to support learning every week, and about 10% for applying course management system (applying ICTs in classroom management). The more regular applications of ICTs into teaching practice might be explained by the top-down reform of the Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and the investment of the ministry on ICTs infrastructure and training human resources. After three years, the effort of the ministry on integrating ICTs in education (Vietnam's National Assembly, 2000, 2005) appears to be having some effect.
As mentioned in the introduction of this paper, the literature reviewed did not reveal any research about the pedagogy related to the applications of ICTs in Physics at Vietnam’s tertiary level. The findings of this research indicated that the popular pedagogy underpinning the use of ICTs in teaching Physics at the universities was to simulate and visualise Physics experiments and phenomena. Lectures’ goal of using ICTs seemed to focus more on students’ individual learning (cognitive constructivist perspective).
The data from lecturers’ and students’ interviews revealed that lecturers applied ICTs, especially MS PowerPoint, software and hardware to support face-to-face lectures, to attract students’ attention and to help students observe Physics phenomena carefully and clearly. From a cognitive constructivist perspective, observing and experiencing are the first stages of a cognitive constructivist learning process. The lecturers’ applications of ICTs revealed in this study were more likely to enhance observing Physics experiments and phenomena, than to enhance learning.
In many institutions around the world, the applications of ICTs are moving toward enhancing interaction, communication and cooperation in learning Physics. According to Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (2010), Vietnam’s universities have integrated ICTs in existing teaching and learning, and are mainly at the infusing stage. The findings of this research showed that ICTs were implemented into physics learning and teaching at the universities. These findings agree with the work of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (2010). The pedagogy driving the ICT use at the universities is changing to be more student-centred. Although changes such as this take time, the research reveals a positive trend toward a sociocultural philosophy of pedagogy underpinning the ICT applications in teaching Physics.
