Ethical and educational justification for computer-based instructions: a case of simulations in science teaching

Teaching is a moral and educational enterprise. Therefore, teachers are expected to explain and justify the instructional methods and designs they use in their teaching to demonstrate how they meet the moral and educational ends of the teaching enterprise. To justify the use of particular instructional methods and designs goes beyond giving a catalogue of reasons and explanations. It requires coming to grips with questions of whether the instructional methods, practices, and designs are consequential, valuable, and desirable to student learning. The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodology that teachers can use to justify the use of computer-based instructions, elements, and designs they intend to use in their teaching. We have justified the use of computer-based simulations in science teaching to illustrate the methodology. The methodology has implications for use of technology in teaching, teacher training, and curriculum design.
Teaching is often described as an educational and moral enterprise, one directly concerned with right belief and right conduct (Fitzgibbons, 1981). And yet teachers hardly justify for using the teaching [...]