Exploring Trends in the Use of Virtual Simulations in the Science Classroom

This study explored and presented teachers’ perspectives on the use of virtual simulations and how their practices reflected this. This study aimed to understand when teachers use virtual simulations, why they use them, how they use them, challenges they encounter if any and if they have alternatives to the simulations. The findings showed that when selecting simulations, teachers consider: Focus on Student type, learning levels and rigor, Accurate representation, especially the appearance and graphics relevant to the concepts and Ease of access, use and versatility especially with LMS. While factors like the type of student and the type of content taught inform the pedagogical decisions of the teachers. Finally, this study found that while most of the teachers seem to use and support the use of simulations, caution was advised especially the risk of misconception based on the illustration or graphics used in the simulations.