The effect of technology integration in the teaching of the unit of interaction of light with matter on the student's academic achievement, attitudes and motivation

As a necessity of the age, in parallel with the developments in science and technology, the integration of technology into teaching has become inevitable. Research have shown that technology integration not only facilitates learning, increases learning attitude and motivation, but also facilitates the learning of science courses. In this direction, the aim of this research is to examine the effect of technology integration on the academic achievement, attitudes towards science and technology and motivation to learn science of seventh grade students in the teaching of the "Interaction of Light with Matter" unit. The model of the research was determined as a single-group pre test-post-test simple experimental design, one of the quantitative research methods. The research was conducted with 30 students studying in the seventh grade of a public secondary school in Bulancak, Giresun, in the second term of the 2021-2022 academic year. For the nine-week, technology was integrated into science teaching, and the activities, that are based on inquiry and the 5E teaching model, were carried out with the sample of the research. "Interaction of Light with Matter Academic Achievement Test", "Attitude towards Science Scale", "Attitude towards Technology Scale" and "Science Learning Motivation Scale" were applied as a pre-test-post-test at the beginning and end of the application. Quantitatively obtained data were analyzed in SPSS22 program. Normally distributed data were analyzed with the Dependent (related) Groups t-Test, and the data not normally distributed were analyzed with the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. As a result of the findings obtained from the research, it was concluded that technology integration in the teaching of "Interaction of Light with Matter" unit significantly increased seventh grade students' academic achievement, attitudes towards science and technology and motivation to learn science. Suggestions were made for practitioners and researchers by making use of the results.