How to use Educational Software in Teaching Chemistry: The Qualitative Insight into Opinions and Attitudes of Czech Chemistry Teachers
Abstract
The role and importance of information and communication technologies in education are continuously increasing, going hand in hand with the emphasis on the digital competency development. The implementation of educational software is one of the possibilities to achieve how to reach better results in chemistry teaching.
However, the appropriate use is substantially related to teachers' opinions and attitudes. Therefore, qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers representing different types of educational software users and having various lengths of teaching practice.
The analysis of the semi-structured interviews was based on the interviews' transcript and open coding by the "pen and paper" method; then, the codes were categorized and the technique of "reading the cards" finalized the process. The results of the analysis show that teachers who use the educational software in chemistry teaching point to its positive impact on learners' results in learning.
However, the absence of teacher-learner communication and interaction is considered a negative factor that can result in the fact that learning content is not fully acquired by the learners, as well as the learner's oral performance is not supported and developed. Furthermore, teachers are afraid of learners 'careless' approach when working with educational software, or consequent overloading of learners with technologies.
Insufficient equipment in schools with hardware and software, lack of external support, personal characteristics of teachers, insufficient time load for teaching chemistry, and inappropriateness of the educational software available belong to the most frequently mentioned constraints on the use of educational software.