International Journal of Human Research and Social Science Studies

This study examines how lower secondary school teachers use digital tools when teaching the Light topic in Grade 9 Natural Science. Data were collected from 50 teachers through a 16-item questionnaire that included four scales, with Cronbach’s α ranging from 0.848 to 0.956. All teachers reported using digital tools, and the mean frequency across nine instructional functions was 3.62 on a five-point scale. Interactive simulations were used by 90.0% of teachers when teaching Light. However, 64.0% of teachers reported that students mainly watched content projected by the teacher, and the functions of data processing, explanation and application, and assessment were used less often than visualisation. The most frequently reported difficulties in teaching Light were that simulations were hard to operate or did not show the nature of the phenomena clearly (56.0%) and that simulations were difficult to combine with hands-on optics experiments (48.0%). The findings suggest that teacher professional development should focus on designing tasks in which students investigate with simulations, work with quantitative data, and link simulations with ray diagrams and real experiments.

digital tools, interactive simulation, digital competence, Light, Grade 9 Natural Science.

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