upon the technology available in su

upon the technology available in supporting students to construct links between scientific theory
and empirical evidence.
Keywords: Applications in subject areas; Pedagogical issues; Secondary education; Simulations;
Teaching/learning strategies
1.0 Introduction
The two research studies reported here were presented together in a symposium which brought
together independent teams from different institutions, and a discussant (Whitelock), who shared a
concern with the evolving development of pedagogical thinking about integrating the use of
technology into science teaching and learning. The shared questions that underpinned our work
were:
How can teachers support students in using interactive technologies to access the ‘theoryworld’ of science (Whitelock & Jelfs, 2004)? How is the pedagogy associated with this goal
shaped by the cognitive resources that learners bring to bear (Schoenfeld, 1985) and by the
structuring resources available in the specific educational setting (Lave, 1988)?
We draw upon the well-established literature of students’ prior conceptions – intuitive beliefs about
natural phenomena derived from experience (Driver et al., 1985; Osborne, 1985) – which
highlights the importance of structuring activities so as to make implicit reasoning explicit. Teacher
intervention and guidance which elicits, discusses, challenges and builds upon learners’ own ideas,
describes and interprets shared experience and highlights continuities (Mercer, 1995) along with
differences between scientific conventions and informal ideas (Scott & Jewitt, 2003), is considered
critical for students’ ultimate (social) construction of more abstract, general and explanatory
knowledge frameworks (Driver et al., 1994). The complex and counter-intuitive nature of scientific
concepts and processes mean that opportunities for discussion, reasoning, interpretation and
reflection are very important for knowledge building. Introducing technological tools and resources
which students can use interactively potentially offers further opportunities for expressing,
evaluating and revising their developing ideas as they visualise the consequences of their own
reasoning