Understanding Teachers' Perception Toward the Use of an Augmented Reality-Based Application for Astronomy Learning in Secondary Schools in Northern Thailand

Augmented Reality (AR) as a technology is evolving along with increasing use of human technology. There is no doubt that a Smartphone is an important device that everyone can carry and use in their everyday life. The integration of the mobile device and AR technology has been increasingly adopted in various fields including Education. In this paper, we present the developmental process of an AR application to facilitate science learning for high school students in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. The AR-based Astronomy application was developed and implemented via students' Smartphones, and used as a medium of interaction in the classroom environment. Furthermore, to assess the usefulness of this application from the teachers' point of view, the experiment was conducted with secondary school students, and then evaluated by 38 pre-service teachers. Overall, the results showed benefits in using the AR application for improving students' learning engagement and enjoyment. Additionally, female pre-service teachers observed that the students perceived more enjoyment when compared with male teachers, who felt that students faced more pressure/tension while using the AR application. The usability test significantly indicated that female teachers preferred to use AR in their class more frequently than their counterparts. Moreover, the disparity between urban and rural schools still remains, where rural teachers found that AR technology would be complicated to use in rural schools' context.