The Influence of Virtual Physics Laboratory on Senior High School Form one Physics Students Performance and Cognitive Achievement at Bishop Herman College, Kpando, Volta Region- Ghana

The main objective of this study was to find out the influence of virtual physics laboratory on students’ performance and cognitive achievements in motion. The total population for the study was 63 second year science students; 42 in the control group and 21 in the experimental group at Bishop Herman College, Kpando. Quasiexperimental design was adopted in this study. Questionnaire, test and were the research instruments used. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 statistical analysis program and statistics such as mean, Standard Deviation were calculated and a paired sample t-test technique was used. The mean test score of the experimental group (22.2) was higher than their control group (13.6) counterparts in the post-test. The ttest analysis of the mean score on the post-test shows a significant difference between the 2 groups (t = 5.465; p < 0.05). There is a significant difference between the participation of the students who were exposed to the VPLAB approach and their counterparts who were exposed to the traditional approach. The finding of the present study clearly revealed that students learned concept of motion effect through virtual physics lab in a better way as compared to teaching in abstract. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Students perceive information in different ways. That is why teachers use variety of teaching strategies to improve students’ learning. Educational systems around the world are under pressure to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance teaching and learning. There are many ways to present new and challenging information in teaching and learning. Computer programmes allow the incorporation of pictures, sounds and animation into teaching and learning which extends the teachers capacity to present lessons that encourage students’ interaction with the subject matter. It is evident that the students at the second cycle schools are becoming more advanced in the use of technology. Physics is one of the major aspects of science which students in Ghana dislike. Research conducted by Wanbugu and Changeiywo (2008) classified physics as difficult subject, not popular, avoided by students and with poor performance in schools. This researcher observed that this assertion also pertains to the science students of Bishop Herman College, Kpando where this study was done. The researcher, observed that most science students at Bishop Herman College passed very well in other science subjects after carefully going through their exercise books and also their performance in their final examination but perform poorly in Physics. It was in this regard that this study examined the option of using virtual physics laboratory to enhance teaching and learning of physic in Bishop Herman College, Kpando. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The use of multimedia in teaching in the second cycle is not encouraging. As a result, physics students’ participation and cognitive achievement in physics was very low. The researcher realized that, the students’ interest in motion was very low. He found out that, most students could not solve simple problem under the topic correctly. Motion has always been a problem to Senior High School students offering physics. For this reason, the researcher used Computer program (VPLAB) to teach in order to determine the effect of the program on the students’ performance with respect to motion. The use of the program was supplemented with the use of pedagogical strategies such as group work; hands-on learning and technology enhanced learning techniques to achieve the needed results. Objectives The objectives of the study were as follows: 1. To identify factors that affected the students’ participation and performance in motion. 2. To determine the outcome of the use of VPLAB on students’ cognitive achievement. Research Questions The research questions below serve as a guide in the investigations: 1. What factors influence students’ participation and performance in motion? 2. What are students’ cognitive achievement in motion when they are taught using the VPLAB Null hypothesis The following null hypotheses were formulated for the study: 1. HO: There is no significant difference between the cognitive achievements of students and the use of VPLAB in lessons on motion. Educational Significance of the Study International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences (IJEAS) ISSN: 2394-3661, Volume-7, Issue-9, September 2020 The outcome of this study will go a long way to enhance the teaching and learning of motion at Senior High Schools in Ghana. The use of VPLAB in teaching mechanics enable students to visualize scientific concept “dynamically and authentically” (Jackson, Krajcik & Soloway, 2000) and stir up their interest. The use of VPLAB would also bring to light possible misconception which when addressed would enhance students’ understanding. To curriculum developers and designers, the success in the use of VPLAB in the teaching and learning of motion would give them a new perspective in recommending its use across the educational system. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ICT integration in teaching and learning of physics Technology has been a party of schooling for many decades but until recently the technologies being used were rather simple and changed slowly. When the field of physics developed the area of electronics, cheaper gadgets have been manufactured and their production, demand and uses have dramatically increased. To underscore this, in 1983 there were just about 50,000 computers in American schools (Stantrock,2004). With the introduction of cheap modems and competing internet service providers a teacher in the rural areas can easily access the internet and specifically for this study there are various websites that have physics videos and physics animations that can be downloaded to suit any topic within the Ghanaian curriculum. Besides, video cameras and DVD players were previously having a prohibitive price but now, any school that wishes to invest in this hardware can do so as their prices has really gone down. Unlike other science subject’s physics has many demonstrations that can be recorded and considering that the basic scientific principles do not change any recorded videos can be used without getting outdated. The internet is the core of computer mediated communication. In many cases it has more current up-to-date information than the physics text books. This would therefore be of great use to the teachers in keeping abreast with immerging issues in the subject so as to be at par with the rest of the world. Howell and Dunnivant, (2002) argued that only when schools have technologically trained teachers and current workable technologies will the technology revolution have an opportunity to truly transform classrooms. Factors that affect students’ performance in Motion lessons According to Keeves and Mrganistern (1992), attitude of the learner affects performance. This was also supported by Anderson (2006) who explained that attitude and achievement are related and that a positive attitude towards science lesson results in a good achievement. Teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge is a key factor to students’ academic success in today’s classrooms (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Therefore, what teachers know, determines the authenticity of their contribution to teaching and learning of motion. The pedagogical content knowledge of a teacher is also crucial in teaching and learning of concepts in Physics. Other factors that affect students’ performance in Mechanics lesson are: past experiences of the learners, material availability, presentation of concepts and topics in an abstract. This leads to ‘inert knowledge’ knowledge not related to the environment of learners. lack of motivation, time available for teaching and learning, learning strategies students employ and selfefficacy are also identified as factors affecting student performance in physic The importance of Students’ Perceptions on Motion How learners form concepts was a very important issue in science education today. Researches on students’ misconceptions have become a central issue in science education for the past two decades because they are presumed to be instruction-resistant obstacles to the acquisition of scientific concepts (Lawson, 1988). Much research therefore has been focused on what accounts for misconception in science and steps to correct the situation. It is well established in higher education that students arrive at universities with already conceived misconceptions which can exist alongside new conceptions and are marked by being personal in nature, counter intuitive, highly resistant to change and/or contradictory (Wandersee, Mintzes & Novak, 1994). This assertion is also true about students who come to Senior High Schools. The sources of misconception may be diversified. More often than not science teachers’ instructions usually focus on covering all the topics in the course syllabus or manual without a consistent emphasis on integrating across concepts. Physics is an exciting subject that underpins much of modern technology and is vital to the economic wellbeing of the world and to our human appreciation of our true place in the physical universe. Description of the Virtual Physics Lab. (VPLAB) Computer Software are well designed concept-driven packages of instructional materials that support and facilitate teaching and learning in a classroom or laboratories. They are designed to be more adaptable for general use. Teachers could use them as supplement and enhancement of their own teaching methods. The Virtual Physics Laboratory (VPLAB) is an on-line simulation-based learning environment allowing students to conduct "virtual experiments" which feature many characteristics and constraints normally associated with real experiments, such as: uncertainty of measuring apparatus, small random fluctuations of parameters, and International Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences