Impact of Virtual Laboratory on the Achievement of Secondary School Chemistry Students in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Collaborative Environments

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of virtual laboratory on the achievements of secondary school chemistry students in homogeneous and heterogeneous collaborative settings in Minna, Niger state, Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated, analyzed and tested at 0.05 alpha level. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 60 Senior Secondary Class Two (SS II) Chemistry Students. The subjects were stratified along gender and ability levels. Sixty students were randomly selected from two secondary schools in Minna, Nigeria. Thirty students (male, n = 15; female, n = 15) were selected from each school. Pretest, posttest, and experimental group design was employed. Experts validated 20item multiple-choice Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) was used for data collection. A reliability coefficient of 0.91 was obtained from the pilot testing using Kuder Richardson (KR-20). ANCOVA and Sidak post-hoc statistics were used for testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that: (a) students in homogeneous ability grouping taught Chemistry using virtual laboratory instruction in collaborative setting performed better than their counterpart taught Chemistry in heterogeneous grouping composition; (b) female students in homogeneous group performed better than their counterparts in heterogeneous groups; (c) the higher achiever students in homogeneous groups outperformed those in heterogeneous groups. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the use of virtual laboratory instruction in homogeneous gender and ability level grouping in collaborative setting should be encouraged in teaching practical chemistry at senior secondary schools in Nigeria.

Using gender responsive collaborative learning strategy to improve students achievement and attitude towards learning science in virtual and hands-on laboratory environment

“…Besides, the characteristic feature of the GR-CLS which involves the homogenous grouping of students by gender in the collaborative learning environment also align with the position of previous studies where homogenous gender collaborative learning setting was adjudged to be more effective than heterogenous gender learning groups (Bennett el at. 2010;Gambari et al, 2018;Tsai, 2012). The findings from the study, however, did not agree with the submission of Baker (2002) that the heterogenous grouping of students by gender in collaborative learning environments favour learning improvements compared to homogenous gender grouping.…”

“…Virtual laboratory experiments can be implemented in a collaborative learning environment by providing opportunity for students to work together on challenging tasks (Tuysuz, 2010). Findings from the studies conducted by Gambari et al (2017) and Gambari et al (2018) suggest that students' exposure to virtual laboratory experiments in a collaborative setting results into significant improvements on their performance in science when compared to students who were exposed to similar virtual laboratory experiments in an individualized setting. This finding reaffirms the important role of students' collaboration in science practices.…”

“…Likewise, Tsai (2012) posited that female-female interaction is stronger than male-male or malefemale interactions respectively. Furthermore, Gambari et al (2018) expounded that exposure of students to virtual laboratory experiments in a collaborative setting significantly improves the performance of females in homogenous collaborative learning group who outperformed the females in the heterogenous collaborative learning group. This finding corroborates with the findings of Bennett, Hogarth, Lubben, Campbell and Robinson (2010) who revealed that all girls collaborative learning group was more effective than mixed sex collaborative learning group.…”

“… Tailor instruction to the need and interest of different groups: Gurian et al (2009); Polcuch (2016).  Separate students into homogenous learning groups based on their gender: Chadwell (2010); Bennett et al (2010); Gambari et al (2018); Parker and Rennie (2002); Stotsky (2012).  Use gender specific instructional approach: Chadwell (2010); Dickey (2014); Martino and Kehler (2006); Mulholland, Hassan and Kaminski (2004); Gurian et al (2009).…”

“…This classroom practice dissuades girls in their pursuance of science, and in most cases, impedes on their self-esteem and attitude towards science (Baker, 2013). The virtual laboratory has, however, been identified as an effective pedagogical tool that can be incorporated into science instruction to enhance females' participation and achievement in science (Gambari, Kawu, & Falode, 2018), and in the visualization of abstract science concepts (Zacharia, 2015). Nevertheless, closing the gender gaps in science achievement should not only be a priority, but criteria must also be set to devise permanent ways of addressing these anomalies in order to improve girls' participation in science.…”