EFFECTS OF CONCRETE VIRTUAL BLENDED INSTRUCTI ON ON STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF SIMPLE A.C. C IRCUIT

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of Concrete and Virtual Manipulative Blended Instruction (CVM-BI) and cognitive ability on senior secondary students’ conceptual understanding of the Simple A.C. Circuit. A quantitative, quasi-experimental pretest–posttest non-equivalent control group design was adopted. The sample consisted of 134 SS II Physics students selected from public secondary schools in Ilorin, Kwara State, using a multistage sampling technique. Intact classes were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group received CVM-BI, which combined hands-on manipulation of physical circuit components with interactive virtual simulations, while the control group was taught using the conventional lecture method over a six-week period. Data were collected using the Simple A.C. Circuit Test (SACT) and the Cognitive Ability Questionnaire (CAQ), both of which had reliability coefficients of 0.86. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANCOVA were used to analyze the data at the 0.05 level of significance, with pretest scores as covariates and cognitive ability as a moderating variable. The results revealed that students taught with CVM-BI achieved significantly higher conceptual understanding than those taught with the traditional method, with a mean gain difference of 16.11 in favor of the experimental group. ANCOVA confirmed a significant effect of instructional method on students’ understanding. Furthermore, students with high cognitive ability performed significantly better than those with low cognitive ability. The study concludes that CVM-BI is more effective than the traditional method in teaching Simple A.C. Circuits, and that cognitive ability significantly influences students’ learning outcomes in Physics.