EFFECTS OF VIRTUAL LABORATORY INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY PRACTICAL AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MINNA METROPOLIS, NIGER STATE

Abstract

This study examined the effects of virtual laboratory package on students ‘achievement in chemistry practicals among senior secondary schools II students. This study adopted a quasi-experimental design. Pretest, posttest experimental, and control groups design was adopted. Two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level significance. The population for the study comprises 3395 senior secondary school chemistry students 2019/2020 academic sessions within Minna metropolis, Niger state. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed, which was clustered into A &B with a sample size of 120. Four schools were randomly sampled for the study. Balancing of Chemical Equation Achievement Test (BOCEAT) is comprised of two sections. Section A contained ten multiple choice objective questions with four response options A - D, while section B contained ten questions that requires two responses of skeletal and balancing equations, which were used for data collection in the study. The instruments were validated by three experts, one in Measurement and Evaluation and two science educators in theDepartment of Science Education of the Federal University of Technology, Minna for both face and content validation. Test, a retest was administered to ascertain reliability index for BOCEATand the data collected from both the experimental and control groups for the reliability were statistically analyzed using a t-test to calculate the internal consistency which yielded 0.87. The data collected for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and a t-test to test the formulated hypothesis at 0.05 levels of significance. Findings from the study showed that virtual laboratory package impacted positively on students’ academic achievement in chemistry practical than the traditional methods. On the mean achievement, scores of male and female students taught balancing of chemical equations using virtual laboratory package, the female did better than the male. Based on the findings of the study, chemistry teachers should be encouraged to use a virtual laboratory package while teaching chemistry concepts especially balancing chemical equations.