Impact of the Didactic Use of a Virtual Laboratory on the Comprehension of the Topic Electricity in Secondary School Students
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Abstract
Introduction: Teaching electricity and electrical circuits is crucial in technical training, but students face difficulties due to the lack of hands-on experimentation in laboratories. The use of virtual laboratories can be an effective alternative to improve learning in this area.
Objective: To determine the impact of the didactic use of the PhET virtual laboratory on the understanding of electricity in second year technical high school students.
Methodology: The study adopted the quasi-experimental design of pretest, posttest and control group. The sample for the study consisted of 26 high school sophomore students belonging to two predetermined groups that composed the experimental and control groups, respectively. The experimental groups were exposed to instructional strategies using a virtual laboratory, while the control group was taught using the conventional laboratory strategy. The instruments used for the pre- and post-test were two 20-question multiple-choice questionnaires that were designed by the authors and validated by experts. The general questions posed for the study were answered using descriptive statistics. The independent paired t-test was used to compare the pre- and post-test scores of the groups and to analyze if there are significant differences.
Results: The results obtained showed that the use of the PhET virtual laboratory for teaching electricity had a positive impact on the conceptual understanding of technical high school students. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between the performance of the experimental group that used PhET and the control group that received traditional instruction. While all students in the experimental group achieved mastery of learning about DC electrical circuits, only two students in the control group achieved this level of mastery. These differences are attributed to the animated visual representations that PhET provides of abstract concepts such as electron motion, allowing students to understand phenomena that are not observable in physical reality.
Conclusion: The implementation of the PhET virtual laboratory proved to be more effective than traditional instruction for teaching electricity in technical high school. While virtual laboratories should not replace physical laboratories, their complementary use allows students to better grasp abstract concepts and acquire a comprehensive understanding of scientific phenomena. This research provides evidence on the usefulness of innovative technological resources such as PhET in science education.
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