Constructivist Learning Environment During Virtual and Real Laboratory Activities

Abstract

Laboratory activities and constructivism are two notions that have been playing significant roles in science education. Despite common beliefs about the importance of laboratory activities, reviews reported inconsistent results about the effectiveness of laboratory activities. Since laboratory activities can be expensive and take more time, there is an effort to introduce virtual laboratory activities. This study aims at exploring the learning environment created by a virtual laboratory and a real laboratory. A quasi experimental study was conducted at two grade ten classes at a state high school in Bandung, Indonesia. Data were collected using a questionnaire called Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) before and after the laboratory activities. The results show that both types of laboratories can create constructivist learning environments. Each type of laboratory activity, however, may be stronger in improving certain aspects compared to the other. While a virtual laboratory is stronger in improving critical voice and personal relevance, real laboratory activities promote aspects of personal relevance, uncertainty and student negotiation. This study suggests that instead of setting one type of laboratory against the other, lessons and follow up studies should focus on how to combine both types of laboratories to support better learning.

Research methods and data analysis techniques in education articles published by Indonesian biology educational journals

“…Furthermore, in the same study taking pretest and posttest data, the data analysis techniques used also vary. There is a study using descriptive statistics (Widodo, Maria, & Fitriani, 2017), there is a study using gain score without a hypothetical test (Rustininingsih et al, 2017), there is a study using ANOVA or t-test only on posttest data (Kristiana, Nurwahyuni, & Dewi, 2017), some were doing ANOVA or t-test on the gain score (Antika & Nawawi, 2017;Toharudin, 2017), some were doing nonparametric test on the gain score (Aryanti & Surtikanti, 2017; A. , and the others were using the ANCOVA (Redhana & Bestari, 2017).…”

Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning Module as An Instructional Tool in Improving Scientific Argumentation Skill

“…Students learn to make claims based on evidence and reasons collected from the results of direct experiments and literature studies. Experimental or direct discovery activities can help students construct their knowledge and improve negotiation among group members (Widodo, et al, 2017). The evidence and reasons for the findings and negotiations will be used to support the claim and make rebuttal (Berland & Mcneill, 2009;Foong & Daniel, 2010;Muratsu et al, 2015).…”

Creating a Virtual Science Lab (VSL): the adoption of virtual labs in Saudi schools

“…The activities in both virtual laboratories (VLs) and hands-on laboratories (HOLs) can enhance the learning environment and make it more constructive. However, there are differences between them related to the nature of students' learning situations, for example, the students in HOLs focus on how to use the physical equipment and the outcomes, while VLs direct students' attention to variables and the interaction of the variables that produce the outcomes (Toth 2016;Widodo et al 2017).…”

“…Also, VLs help students examine anomalous data that do not concur with prior knowledge, theories, and expectations. Such data are hard to investigate in HOLs (Widodo et al 2017). In addition, using computational platforms in VLs provides easy to access and portable analyses and the flexible user interfaces meet various user needs and expectations (Afgan et al 2015).…”