Augmented Reality in Early Childhood Science: Perceived Importance and Status Quo from Teachers’ Perspectives

Balsam Abdullah Alrasheed

doi:10.55074/hesj.vi51.1690

Authors

Balsam Abdullah Alrasheed Assistant Professor, Department of Early Childhood, College of Education and Human Development, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55074/hesj.vi51.1690

Keywords:

Augmented Reality (AR) Technology, Scientific Concepts, Early Childhood, Teachers’ Perspective

Abstract

Early exposure to basic scientific concepts through interactive means is advantageous for preschoolers. It helps with their scientific and critical thinking abilities and epistemic cognition in their upcoming developmental stages. In the early preoperational stage, it is characteristic that they rely on sensory experiences, manipulate and experiment with tangible objects around them. Augmented reality (AR) technology brings abstract and hard-to-visualize concepts closer to the child’s imagination. This advantage makes it an ideal teaching aid to be used in classrooms. However, the educators' readiness and willingness to embrace this technology determines the extent of the success of its usage in classrooms. The study explores the awareness of the reported benefits of the technology and the implementation realities of AR from the educator’s perspective. 104 preschool educators from Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, responded to the survey on two dimensions, perceived importance and perceived status quo of AR utilization in preschool educational settings. As hypothesized, we found a strong agreement among preschool educators that AR is beneficial for enhancing, motivating, and bringing joy to learning scientific concepts. Additionally, even though they reported being hesitant toward AR due to its novelty, they also reported that they are motivated and willing to learn the technology. The current study suggests further efforts to train educators with AR tools and software to increase their self-efficacy.

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