Özet:
In the current study, conditions where students worked with only a hands-on laboratory or
only a virtual laboratory were compared with conditions in which combinations of the two
laboratory environments were used. The main goal of the study was to investigate the effects
of different laboratory environment experiences (hands-on only, virtual only, and two
different combinations of these laboratories) on middle school students’ conceptual
knowledge, inquiry skills, and attitudes toward science courses and laboratories.
A quasi-experimental research design was used in the study. Participants were 143 seventh
grade students from a public school. The study consisted of four conditions, corresponding to
four different laboratory arrangements: hands-on only, virtual only, and two different
combinations of hands-on and virtual laboratory environments. This study employed five
different measurement tools to reach its goal, including multiple-choice and open-ended
conceptual knowledge tests, an inquiry skills test, an attitude questionnaire, and interviews.
The findings indicate that middle school students' conceptual knowledge, inquiry skills, and
attitudes toward science courses and laboratories improved significantly after working with
the laboratories. Furthermore, using different laboratory environments in a combination was
seen to yield significantly better results for students' conceptual knowledge than using only a
virtual laboratory. Each laboratory set-up, especially the combined forms, provided important
supports for students to deal with their misconceptions. Another finding was that there were
no significant differences between the different arrangements of laboratories as far as
enhancing students' inquiry skills. Conditions did not differ in terms of overall attitudes
toward science courses and laboratories. The only difference between conditions was found
for one sub-dimension of the attitude questionnaire that concerned practical work in science;
the hands-on alone condition did not show significant improvement for this sub-dimension,
while all other conditions did. Lastly, there was consistency between the results for the
attitude questionnaire and the interviews.
