The effect of virtual laboratory supported instruction on students' conceptual understanding and attitudes on electric circuits

Purpose: In this study, it is aimed to determine the conceptual difficulties experienced by 7th grade students in the Electric Circuits unit and to examine the effects of teaching in-class activities developed for these in the presence of virtual laboratory-supported real laboratory applications on students' conceptual understanding and attitudes towards the lesson. Method: In line with the purpose of the research, nested mixed design was used in the study. While quasi-experimental design with pre-test post-test control group was used to obtain quantitative data, phenomenology design was used as a qualitative design. A total of 42 students studying in the 7th grade of Osman Gazi Secondary School in Hamur district of Ağrı constitute the sample of the research. Easily accessible sampling method was used to determine the sample of the study. In addition, an interview form was applied to 15 science teachers selected by criterion sampling method at the beginning of the research, and the framework of in-class activities was determined in line with the answers received. The "Teacher Interview Form" carried out before the implementation of the research, the "Interview Questions for Students" carried out after the application and the observations made during the applications constitute the qualitative data of this study. "Electric Circuits Unit Concept Test" prepared by the researcher and "Science Course Attitude Scale" developed by Nuhoğlu (2008) were evaluated as quantitative data as pretest and posttest. While the course contents prepared for the first five acquisitions in the Electrical Circuits unit in the 7th grade science curriculum were taught in the experimental group with real laboratory applications supported by virtual laboratory applications, they were taught only in the form of real laboratory applications in the control group. At the end of the applications, 7 students selected from both groups were interviewed. For the data obtained from quantitative data collection tools, descriptive and predictive statistics were made by using the SPSS package program. In the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis and descriptive analysis methods were used together. Results: It was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental group EDUCT posttest mean score and the control group EDUCT posttest mean score. According to the post-test result, the effect size was calculated as η2= .20. The specified value indicates that virtual laboratory-supported real laboratory practices have a great impact on students' conceptual understanding. In addition, it was determined that the attitude of the experimental group towards the science lesson was higher than the control group. When we look at the data in the interview form applied to the teachers, it is seen that the concepts of current-voltage-resistance come first among the subjects that are difficult to explain to the students. It was observed that the teachers stated that the most important experiments to be done in this unit are series and parallel connection experiments in mixed circuits. It has been determined that the participant teachers are generally aware of common misconceptions. Finally, it was determined that some of the students selected for the interview from both groups had difficulties in current, voltage and resistance. Again, it was determined that the students generally had more difficulties in mixed circuits and gave answers that were generally misleading about what was inside the battery and cable when the lamp was on. Conclusion and Suggestions: As a result of this study, it was concluded that the concepts that students had the most difficulty with were potential difference and current. Although different applications were tried, it was observed that some students still had misconceptions at the end of the application, and it was thought that this was due to their resistance to change. Since misconceptions have a great impact on conceptual understanding, it has been suggested that teachers and prospective teachers should be better equipped by taking various in-service trainings and keeping their course practices up to date. For future studies, it is recommended to investigate the effects of applications with different samples for a longer period.