ENHANCING ACHIEVEMENT GAIN PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGH INQUIRY-BASED LABORATORY LEARNING STRATEGIES ON PHYSICS EDUCATION

Abstract

This study examined statistically the learning achievement gains among students who engaged inquiry-based virtual laboratory experiment (IBVLE), physical laboratory (IBPLE), and non-laboratory (IBNL) learning strategies. A quasi-experimental research design was used with sample size of 150 tenth-grade students divided into three groups associated to the learning strategies. The students’ achievement gain data were administered and analyzed from pre-test to post-test; it indicated roughly normal distributed and equal variance. A two-way ANOVA was conducted to compare students’ achievement gain variance, its result reveals there are significant differences between learning strategies groups at P < 0.05 with partial eta square (η²) = .343 , but the gender has not statistically significant on the achievement mean N-gain.  The study also analyzed using line marginal mean plot, its findings showed that the female and the male students performed greater in IBVLE learning strategy than in IBPLE, and IBNL learning strategy, respectively. Both genders exhibited nearly equal learning achievement N-gains in IBPLE learning strategy. . Level of students’ achievement gain were analyzed across all learning strategies using N-gain, the group of students exposed to IBVLE strategy gained a moderate high level of achievement gain with average N-gain = 0.583, but no students gained high level in IBPLE, and IBNL learning approach. The findings suggested that IBVLE is a more effective learning strategy for enhancing achievement performance.