The effects of using simulations and experiments on science teachers’ beliefs about and attitudes toward physics, simulations and experiments

This study investigated what effect the study’s tools (ICBS, LIBE, and a combination of an ICBS and a LIBE) had on science teachers’ beliefs about and attitudes toward the use of these tools, and to determine whether the results of this study support the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein, 1980) that suggests that attitudes are a function of beliefs. Specifically, the objective of this research was (a) to identify what beliefs science teachers bring to the learning environment about the advantages or disadvantages the use of the study’s tools both before and after the study, (b) to identify science teachers’ attitudes towards the use of the study’s tools both before and after the study, (c) to identify science teachers’ attitudes towards physics both before and after the study and investigate whether student’s exposure to the repeated use of the study’s ICBSs and LIBEs promoted any possible changes in attitudes towards physics, and (d) to determine whether the results of this study support the Theory of Reasoned Action that science teachers’ beliefs influenced their attitudes.