A Study of Simulation-Role-Play Strategy on Pre-service Teachers’ Academic Performance in Basic Electronics

Achieving deeper and permanent learning has always been the focus of teaching force. This purpose is independent of the teaching level or subject matter. Pre-service teachers’ lack of interest and inability to connect learning levels are partly cited for their inability to develop this deeper and permanent learning of science concepts. In this respect, an action research design conducted using a case-study paradigm which included the simulation-role-play teaching strategy was used to teach pre-service teacher the concept of “doping of pure semiconductors” into p-type and n-type semiconductors. This is an area under basic electronics. The result of the non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test analysis revealed a statistically significant increase in pre-service teachers’ performance level in basic electronics test following an intervention using the simulation-role-play approach. The median score of the performance level also increased from a pre-test score to post-test score. The simulation-role-play teaching approach affected student teachers’ learning of basic electronics by 55% which is considered a large effect. Further, when a sample of the pre-service teachers were interviewed, the result showed a positive view toward teaching using simulation approach which converts theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge for deeper understanding and permanent learning. The findings from this study would be helpful to student teachers and tutors in the colleges of education as it offered useful intervention in teaching and learning of doping of pure semiconductors.