Abstract:

This paper intends to describe a new pedagogical approach to teach science subjects and the practical implementation of the method in regular lessons in schools in Europe.

The Analogous Comparison and Transfer Method (ACAT) was developed in School Education and focuses on the age of 16 to 18 years old students. The method uses analogous comparisons by taking examples or situations from everyday life and in consequence the logical or analogous transfer to the scientific problem. The method uses the development of imaginations or “pictures in the head” to develop a view of the analogy; this picture is transferred as a problem-solving idea to the concrete scientific problem. Multimedia material like animations are used to provide a higher level of imagination and to develop the understanding for the discussed problem. The method was developed for the subject physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology and computer science and was tested in a case study in physics at high school level in Austria.

The second text in praxis is currently done in the frame of the Erasmus+ Project (2018-1-ES01-KA201-050186 Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices) named Technology Enhanced Science Teaching (TEST). In the frame of the project, 15 different teaching units for science subjects have been developed, implemented and tested in current teaching.

The learning units were created with different tools on a multimedia and interactive basis. They are available as web-based material that always uses the ACAT method. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic resulted in additional experiences, which are also reported in this paper.

The first experiences with the learning units were positive and showed additional added value in addition to the advantages of the ACAT method. The learning units can be used in the framework of distance learning as part of "home schooling" (practiced as part of the Covid-19 crisis). The material is also suitable for pre-class use in the context of flipped learning (following the ideas of Jon Bergmann). The case study in Austria also showed that female learners have an advantage in learning complex scientific contexts through this method.

The learning units will be tested in schools in Spain, Austria, Ireland and Sweden, and the results will show the extent to which the ACAT method and the new multimedia-based approach to teaching in science teaching make learners more successful.

Keywords:

Innovation, ACAT-Method, technology, science teaching, multimedia.