Exploring Students’ Perceptions of Virtual and Physical Laboratory Activities and Usage in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Laboratory experience has been indicated as a crucial component of science teaching for practical skills acquisition and concretization of scientific abstract concepts. However, due to the shortage of physical laboratories, there is a need to integrate virtual labs into teaching as an alternative to physical labs to promote students’ experiential learning, conceptual understanding, attitude and overall performance. The present study explored how students in secondary schools perceive the use of virtual and physical laboratories in learning biology. The study involved 53 biology students from one secondary school in the Ruhango district in Rwanda. The school was purposively selected to participate in this study as it had an equipped physical laboratory with the materials needed during the study. In addition, the school was equipped with a computer lab where each student had access to a computer. This study used a mixed-method research approach. A validated survey questionnaire of closed-ended questions was used to collect quantitative data. Furthermore, a focus group of eight students (four boys and four girls) was used to collect qualitative data. The data collected was analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed that more students perceived virtual lab activities as easier to perform, more motivating and more interesting than physical lab activities. However, 81% of students stressed that virtual labs should not replace physical labs; rather, both should be used in complementarity as physical lab activities helped them to understand the content more than virtual lab activities. Nevertheless, students pointed out that virtual labs could undoubtedly be very helpful for students whose schools lack physical laboratory equipment. The findings of this study indicate the need for further investigation to compare physical and virtual labs in terms of students’ academic performance and interest in biology.