Effects of Virtual Simulation Package on Senior School Students’ Performance in Modern Physics in Badagry, Lagos

Abstract

This research work is titled Effects of Virtual Simulation Package on the performance of Senior School Students in Modern Physics in Badagry, Lagos. This study explores the impacts of virtual simulations on learning Modern Physics. The quasi experimental pretest posttest non equivalent controlled group was used with 2 x 2 x 3 factorial design. The total number of SS III Physics students was 1824 but a purposive sampling was used to select 255 students (165 males and 90 females) in two co educational schools located at Badagry was taken. Three instruments which have been validated were used, these were the Modern Physics Performance Test (MPPT), Virtual Simulation Package on Modern Physics (VSP-MP) and a Lesson Note, where the I-CVI values were 0.9, 1.0, and 0.92 respectively. Kuder-Richardson Formula 21 (KR-21) were used to attain reliability of MPPT which received a coefficient of 0.72. These data were analysed through the descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation via t-test and ANCOVA), at the level of significance of 0.05. The findings reveal that students who were instructed through VSP did exceptionally better when compared to those who were taught conventionally; there was not any significant difference in performance of the students on the basis of gender; but the performance differed significantly across the different levels of scores. The study also suggests to use virtual simulations to teach Physics, train teachers to use simulations and also conduct very large longitudinal research to increase generalisability.