Effects of Virtual Laboratory Instructional Strategy on Students ‘achievement In Chemistry Practical among Senior Secondary Schools in Minna Metropolis, Niger State

Abstract

This study adopted quasi experimental design. Pretest, posttest experimental and control groups design was adopted. Two research questions and two hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level significance. The population for the study comprises of 3395 senior secondary school chemistry students in Minna metropolis, Niger state. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed, which were clustered into A &B with a sample size of 120. Four schools were randomly sampled. Balancing of Chemical Equation Achievement Test (BOCEAT). BOCEAT was validated by three experts, one in Measurement and Evaluation and two science educators in the Department of Science Education of the Federal University of Technology, Minna for both face and content validation. Test, retest was administered to ascertain reliability index for BOCEAT and the data collected from both the experimental and control groups for the reliability were statistically analyzed using 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 t-test to test the formulated hypothesis at 0.05 levels of significance. Findings from the study showed that virtual laboratory instructional package impacted positively on students’ academic achievement in chemistry practical than traditional method. On the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught balancing of chemical equations using virtual laboratory strategy, female did better than the male. Based on the findings of the study, chemistry teachers should be encouraged to use virtual laboratory strategy while teaching chemistry concepts especially balancing of chemical equation.