Dissertation to receive M.A. degree
February 2013
Persian sources
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to compare the effect of real and virtual laboratory on learning experimental sciences. The statistical population consisted of 96 male students of the seventh grade of the first secondary school of Shahid Chamran State Model School in Peshwa city, and the samples included 2 groups of 31 people who were randomly selected. The research method was quasi-experimental and the research tool was a researcher-made test. The research design was a pre-test & post-test, and Crocodile Chemistry and Physics simulated software was used to train the virtual group. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics and covariance analysis test. The results indicated that the virtual laboratory method has increased students' learning. Keywords: real laboratory, virtual laboratory, learning, experimental science, Crocodile software. It is one of the human sciences whose findings are obtained from the experimental method, and the criterion of their correctness is conformity with experimental observations.
The purpose of teaching experimental sciences is to teach phenomena that are observed in daily life. In all educational systems of the world, the teaching and learning of experimental sciences has a special place and efforts are made so that all students, while familiarizing themselves with the principles and concepts of experimental sciences and acquiring the necessary scientific literacy, acquire the knowledge necessary to become a desirable citizen. By acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills in various fields of science, students will be able to make informed and rational decisions in their lives. Laboratory activities are considered one of the main pillars of experimental science education and provide the means for the growth of scientific knowledge, skills and scientific attitudes of scientists. In addition to consolidating learning and increasing the permanence of learned concepts, doing laboratory activities strengthens practical skills that are used in daily life and provides opportunities for innovation, creativity and critical thinking in students. In the curriculum of successful countries in teaching experimental sciences, using the laboratory and doing practical activities is an inseparable part of the subject, and a lot of emphasis is placed on the achievement of skill and attitude goals. It has caused special attention to be paid to the development of handicraft skills. (Badrian, 1385). However, some problems in conducting real experiments, such as the lack of necessary facilities in the laboratory, the dangerousness of part of the laboratory activities, and other cases, have caused most of the teachers not to take the necessary care in conducting experiments in real terms. The use of these new technologies has greatly accelerated and facilitated education, and education has not been exempted from these developments (Alfasi [1], 2000 quoted by Bakhtiari and Ahmadi, 2016 quoted by Rizvani, 2013). In recent years, virtual education has emerged as one of the most important applications of new technologies in the world, and the progress of today's society depends on the optimal use of educational technologies, because education and learning are always influenced by various factors that help to achieve the best possible learning, and virtual education is not separate from this principle (Mushtaghi, 2012, quoted by Rezvani, 2013). Today, simulation and its use have found various applications, one of which is virtual laboratories, which can improve the quality of education and learning by creating an attractive and safe environment. However, it deprives the learner of the pleasure of experiencing a real situation and experience, as well as the strengthening of hands-on skills. In all educational systems of the world, the teaching and learning of experimental sciences has a special place and efforts are made so that all students, while familiarizing themselves with the principles and concepts of experimental sciences and acquiring the necessary scientific literacy, acquire the necessary knowledge for a desirable citizen.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the approach of positivism and education by proving and understanding the material with the help of experiment and experience ruled almost with the process of creation and growth of all scientific disciplines. In the beginning of the last century, the education workers realized the importance of using educational aids and realized that the more objective and concrete the subjects of basic science are, the higher the learning rate will be (Schweik [2], 1992). After the First World War, when there was a lot of dissatisfaction in science, science teachers used laboratory and workshop tools to teach, this made students show more interest and the results of using laboratories in teaching made the students more prepared to be attracted to the labor market and institutions and factories, as a result of which a significant transformation was created in the industrial progress in Western countries (Shevik, 1992). Since then, in the curriculum of successful countries in the teaching of experimental sciences, using the laboratory and performing real practical activities became an inseparable part of the subject, and the great emphasis on the achievement of skill and attitude goals has caused special attention to be paid to the development of manual skills (Badrian, 2015). On the other hand, the progress of modern human technology in recent centuries has reached an astonishing speed and has greatly affected education. In addition to this, education has benefited from these advances in the use of new tools and methods, and the formation of educational technology has created a new field for conducting scientific investigations on how to use new tools and methods in education, and in this regard, the latest technological findings have served education. An example of the use of educational technology is the use of virtual laboratory software, which has gained a lot of popularity and prosperity in recent years.
Cognitivists such as Azobel [3] (1963) and Bruner [4] (1960) emphasized the use of visual, auditory, demonstration and laboratory tools and believe that a high degree of awareness and practical skills can be achieved by using these tools.
Alexander [5] and Silver [6] (1981) states that in a regular curriculum that is established and continued based on practical training, it can be a map for general and specific goals in an advanced industrial and progressive society. On the other hand, there is a question that if the student can often understand the material better by seeing, how in the previous decades when the possibility and means of conducting experiments did not exist even to a small extent, many students developed a sense of interest, curiosity and research. On the other hand, can relying on providing information alone in a century where technology is of particular importance, be as fruitful as in previous years? Now that schools are equipped with smart facilities, can replacing virtual laboratory software be a good substitute for the current real laboratories? Hodson [7] (1993) in a research concluded that conducting experimental science experiments increases motivation, increases the ability of practical skills and conscious learning of students. In the research of Harlan [8] (1999) on the subject of the effect of practical activities on science learning, the result was a significant increase in motivation and learning. Koomis [9] (2001 quoted by Kerami, 2018) concluded in his research that the use of computer simulated environments to conduct experiments, i.e., virtual experiments, can have a positive effect on students' understanding of physical concepts.
Given that a wide range of Iran's population is made up of students and also given that there are many problems in education and how to use various educational strategies in this matter, it seems necessary that researches on the effect of using these strategies should be done. take place (Sharifi, 2010 quoted from Rizvani, 2013). For this reason The present research aims to compare the effectiveness of the virtual laboratory environment in front of the real laboratory to take a step in solving the ambiguities in this field and effective methods in the laboratory teaching of experimental sciences. 1-3 Importance and necessity of the problem In an educational system, the power of a teacher is always manifested in his teaching method. With the advent of the new age and the emergence of new, limited and specialized needs, the need to revise the goals of teaching and its methods has become more obvious and necessary than before (Asghari, 2008). For this purpose, teachers use various tools in the teaching process, such as conducting experiments.