Comparations Between Physical and Virtual Manipulatives in Collaborative Inquiry

Abstract

The emergence of virtual manipulatives (VM) provides a new possibility for collaborative inquiry learning, which is to combine the interaction between students and digital media resources with the face-to-face communication between group members. Previous researches have investigated the effects of VM in conceptual understanding in science inquiry learning. However, the utility of VM in collaborative inquiry learning remains unclear. Besides, as there is little research on the learning process, we still do not understand the cognitive experience of students when using VM for collaborative inquiry learning. To explore the impact of VM in collaborative inquiry learning on both the learning outcome and the learning process, this study was designed to compare the effects of physical manipulatives (PM) and VM from students' performance level and cognitive level in an authentic class. For performance level, we examined both the instant group learning results and individual long-term knowledge retention. For cognitive level, we investigated the cognitive load and task involvement of the students. In this study, we conducted a quasi-experiment and distributed the cognitive load scale. 53 primary students in two comparable classes participated in the study. The findings indicated that students using VM perform better both in instant group results and individual knowledge retention than the students interacting with PM. As for the cognitive level, students using VM also reported a higher level of task involvement.