Indonesia and many other developing countries have a vast youth population, yet limited facilities for physics learning. The major purposes of this study are to develop low-cost, technology-enhanced physical and virtual laboratories and to investigate their effects on various learning objectives, including conceptual understanding, inquiry performance, scientific inquiry self-efficacy, and enjoyment. The virtual laboratory (VL) used the physics education technology to simulate a pendulum, while the physical laboratory (PL) was a technology-enhanced physical laboratory utilizing the Camera Stopwatch and Smart Tools applications. In this quasiexperimental design, a total of 68 secondary school students in Indonesia were randomly assigned to the PL and VL settings. The participants conducted the pendulum experiment guided by an inquiry worksheet along with pre- and postconceptual tests, scientific inquiry self-efficacy, and enjoyment questionnaires. The result revealed that the guided inquiry-based VL was as effective as the PL for simple concepts, but was more effective for improving difficult concepts and scientific inquiry self-efficacy. Nevertheless, the PL group performed better on crucial inquiry activities, that is, planning, experimenting, and further improvement of the experiment. Moreover, both the PL and VL significantly promoted enjoyment. It was concluded that the PL and VL were successful for achieving different learning objectives.

This study examined the difference in adults’ pronunciation performance with peer feedback and individual practice when using an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. The same ASR software was used in both the comparison (n = 31) and the experimental group (n = 33) for 12 weeks. The participants were working adults in Taiwan. During the weekly lesson, the participants dictated a text to the ASR software, Speechnotes, on its website and then practiced misidentified words by themselves (the comparison group) or with feedback from team members (the experimental group). Learners’ pronunciation was measured in reading aloud and spontaneous conversation tasks before and after the treatment. Participants’ satisfaction and perceptions of the ease of use of the software were also assessed at the end of the course. The results revealed a significant difference in the two groups’ pronunciation post-tests, suggesting that peer feedback is more effective than individual practice for the correction of pronunciation. The experimental group was more satisfied than the comparison group with the software. However, no differences in accentedness or perception of ease of use were evident. The findings, ASR software implementation challenges, and implications for adult language learning are discussed.

This study investigated the time effect of cooperative games on students’ emotions of learning science and the treatment effect on their chemistry achievement. This quasi-experimental study compared the use of cards, board games, and riddles, and the use of conventional paper-and-pencil exercises to learn the basics of chemical elements and compounds, for a duration of 4 weeks. One hundred and fourteen ninth graders at an urban public high school in Taipei were involved. The results revealed that the experimental group had significantly higher positive emotion and lower negative emotion throughout the intervention period. While no time effect was observed for the experimental group, a significant time effect on positive and negative emotions in the comparison group using exercises was found: high achievers decreased their positive emotion, and middle to high achievers increased their negative emotion. Furthermore, low and middle achievers performed better when using games. However, no significant difference for the high achievers of the two groups was discovered. This study showed that conventional exercises were detrimental to middle and high achievers’ learning emotions, although their concepts improved. Science teachers may try innovative activities such as collaborative games to maintain students’ positive emotions and facilitate low achievers’ conceptual learning.