Conclusion
Today, there are new challenges for science education. These include the lack
of adequate focus on the development of conceptual knowledge, insufficient
time to allow students to develop deep conceptual knowledge, inadequate
strategies to promote the development of new literacies and emerging compe-
tencies required for today’s learning, working and intellectual performance.
This paper argues that teachers need a learning design model to assist their
instructional planning in a way that will help them overcome such challenges.
The model presented here is composed of four integral components: Resourc-
es, Activity, Support and Evaluation. Conceptual model learning objects are
introduced as one effective type of digital resources for concept learning. Sci-
ence education needs to remain flexible and open to technological advances.
Technologies and tools, although seen to be significantly improving perform-
ance in scientific education, also scaffold a deeper understanding of scientific
concepts. Technology cannot yet think for us, nor can it create innovative
solutions to emerging problems. Without doubt, human intelligence is criti-
cal for this purpose. However, human intelligence, without deep conceptual
knowledge and new literacies through which to productively use technology,
may not take science education beyond our current horizon.