Augmented reality (AR) can represent a contextualised scientific inquiry environment in which students may explore the real world and develop science process skills via interacting with rich information from virtual systems. However, it remains a challenge for most students to complete scientific inquiry tasks without proper support. Research evidence has suggested the potential of reflective scaffolding when applying scientific inquiry. Accordingly, we designed a contextualised reflective mechanism-based AR learning model to assist students in completing scientific inquiry tasks. Guided by the proposed model, we designed four stages of scientific inquiry learning: conceptual understanding, reflective cognition, in-depth inquiry, and knowledge building. A quasi-experiment and lag sequential analysis were conducted by recruiting 81 sixth-grade students to examine the effects of the proposed model on their scientific inquiry learning performances, higher order thinking, and behavioural patterns. The experimental results reveal that the proposed approach improved students’ inquiry learning performances and higher order thinking tendency (problem-solving tendency and metacognitive awareness). Moreover, the evidence from this study also suggests that the students who learned with the proposed approach exhibited more observation, comparison, exploration, and reflection behavioural patterns in the field trip than those who learned without the contextualised reflective mechanism. Implications are discussed.

This study aimed to explore the relationships between students’ perceived learning practices and associated self-efficacies regarding mobile-assisted seamless science learning. The learning practices for mobile-assisted seamless science learning questionnaire was developed with three scales that denote learning supported by mobile technology. These scales included authentic learning, self-directed learning, and collaborative learning with information and communication technology. Associated self-efficacies promoted by mobile-assisted seamless science learning could include authentic problem-solving, creative thinking and academic self-efficacy. A sample of 312 primary school students from China responded to the mobile-assisted seamless science learning questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the mobile-assisted seamless science learning questionnaire had high reliability and validity. The path analysis results analysed via a structural equation modelling technique implied that primary school students’ perceived self-directed learning and authentic learning were important as positive predictors for authentic problem-solving efficacy, which may function as a partial mediation variable in the effect of students’ perceptions of learning practices on the academic self-efficacy of mobile-assisted seamless science learning. The findings highlighted that learning practices (i.e. authentic learning and self-directed learning) and authentic problem-solving efficacy are both indispensable and mutually reinforcing. This can provide some insights for promoting mobile learning in science learning in the future.

This study examines the correlations between perceived technology-assisted teacher support; student hardiness (i.e. individual commitment, challenge, and control); and technology-embedded scientific inquiry (TESI) using a mediational model approach. Data were gathered from the series of questionnaires administered to 1566 Chinese students with an average age of 11.5. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis results confirmed our assumption that when students perceived technology-assisted teacher support, this promoted their TESI hardiness, indirectly increasing their perceived TESI. Perceived technology-assisted teacher support and TESI were found to be positively correlated in this structural model. However, by including TESI hardiness in the mediational mechanism, its direct relationship with both perceived technology-assisted teacher support and perceived TESI was insignificant, while the mediating effects remained significant. Therefore, TESI hardiness is of considerable importance for delineating the relationship between perceived technology-assisted teacher support and perceived TESI. It was revealed that both the interpersonal variable (perceived technology-assisted teacher support) and the individual variable (TESI hardiness) are vital in determining the effectiveness of TESI. These findings enhance the understanding of and approach to the promotion of students’ perception of scientific inquiry by emphasising the value of technology-assisted teacher support and hardiness.

Background: The contextual and interactive learning research was motivated by the need to enhance the healthcare training effect of caregivers of patients with suspected COVID‐19 infection during quarantine. However, there is a lack of effective approaches to integrating mobile contextual learning into interactive learning.Objectives: Therefore, this study developed a mobile augmented reality‐integration contextual interactive healthcare training system, and then investigated the effects of the proposed system on anxiety, learning effects, perceived support and self‐efficacies.Methods: To validate the effectiveness of the system, we conducted a quasi‐experiment with a sample of 91 caregivers of patients with suspected COVID‐19 infection.Results and conclusions: Results showed that the experimental group with the developed system was superior to the control group with e‐pamphlet instruction in mobile devices, in terms of learning effect, perceived support, self‐efficacies and reduction of anxiety during quarantine. Therefore, the mobile contextual interactive healthcare training system could be useful to improve caregivers' self‐efficacies as well as their ability to care for patients in the context of COVID‐19 infection prevention.Implications: This is one of the few studies of the effective approach for technology‐enhanced healthcare education in the COVID‐19 pandemic. Some corresponding suggestions are proposed: implementing mobile contextual interactive training activities to enhance caregivers' knowledge, skills and self‐efficacies; involving social interactions to relieve caregivers' anxiety; providing professional communications and support while facing difficulties in taking care of patients with suspected COVID‐19 infection.