Why e-learning matters: developing early elementary school students' understanding of the Seasons

E-learning and science learning

Wentling et al. (2000) defined e-learning as "the acquisition and use of knowledge distributed and facilitated primarily by electronic means" (p. 5). E-learning as the incorporation of self-motivation, communication, efficiency, and advanced technologies can provide a range of solutions that enhance learners' knowledge and performance (Ghaleb, Daoud, Hasnah, El-Seoud, & El-Sofany 2006; Rosenberg, 2000). The advantages of e-learning include flexibility, interoperability, collaboration, source sharing, reusability, cost and time effectiveness, and performance evaluation (Bouhnik & Marcus, 2006; Jahnke & Kumar, 2014; Khamparia & Pandey, 2017).

The effect of e-learning on students' understanding of science concepts has been investigated in many previous studies. The findings from nearly all of these studies showed that the use of e-learning could enhance students' conceptual understanding in science (e.g., Liu et al., 2014). For instance, in the review of Liu et al., (2014), they provided evidence that the use of mobile devices has the potential to support student science learning, development of conceptual understandings of specific science concepts, and related skills. Seipold and Pachler (2011) and Cristol, Choi, Mitchell, & Burbidge (2015) explained the success of e-learning based on the sociocultural theory that emphasizes the idea that learning involves facilitating the social and cultural processes. E-learning helps to facilitate the interaction and communications of students, teachers and curricula by offering new ways of socializing, networking, and acquiring knowledge, and thus promotes learning. As Khamparia and Pandey (2017) reviewed, e-learning allows learners to learn anytime and anywhere through computer-based learning or digital collaboration, and promotes the interaction of shy people because they are more comfortable when they have space and time to interact.

Learning about seasons through e-learning

The seasons phenomenon is an astronomical topic relevant to students' lives, thus allowing us to delve into an important but challenging aspect of supporting astronomy education. Seasonal change is a uniform action with a regular or recurring pattern: spring to summer to autumn to winter to spring. Seasonal change is a continuous, ongoing event or phenomenon: it goes on year by year, without beginning or end. Learning to explain the seasons provides an opportunity for students to relate evidence to model-based reasoning, to engage in spatial thinking, and to extend their understanding of science (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009).

Prior research with elementary and middle school students (Plummer, & Maynard, 2014; Tsai & Chang, 2005), as well as adults (Heywood, Parker, & Rolands, 2013; Plummer, Zahm, & Rice, 2010), suggests that learners always come to school with alternative conceptions of seasons, for instance, perceiving the earth's distance from the sun as the reason for seasonal change, which need to be better aligned with accepted scientific concepts through instruction. E-learning can be an effective instructional approach to bring about conceptual change among students. Hsu (2008) found that most high school students developed a deep and accessible understanding of the reasons for the alternation of seasons after undergoing experiences provided by a technology-enhanced learning course. De Paor and colleagues (2017) argued that students' misconceptions may be reinforced by textbook illustrations that exaggerate eccentricity or show an inclined view of the Earth's near-circular orbit, and suggested using weather-based visualizations to help university students to segue a heliocentric view of the reasons for seasons.

However, there is little research on early elementary school students' prior conceptions of seasons. Not many studies have paid attention to investigating whether and how early elementary school students would construct conceptions of seasons and develop skills of evidence-based explanations in an e-learning environment. This study aimed to provide some insights into this.