Exploring the Effect of PhET Interactive Simulation-Based Activities on Students’ Performance and Learning Experiences in Electromagnetism

This study focused on the development and finding the effect of PhET® Interactive Simulation-based Activities in electromagnetism on the performance and learning experiences of students following the steps of the Research and Development (R & D) methodology . A panel of evaluators validated the Physics Education Technology Interactive Simulation-based Activities (PhET®ISbA) and their ratings were analyzed using the mean. The developed PhET®ISbA were tried out to 200 Grade 10 students to determine their effectiveness in teaching concepts in Physics particularly Electromagnetism via a quasi experiment following a one-group pretest-posttest design. Test results gathered from the tryout were analyzed using frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and t-test for correlated samples. Data gathered revealed that the developed PhET®ISbA are extremely valid in terms of learning outcomes, instructional characteristics and evaluation. Findings of the tryout show that there is a significant improvement of the Physics academic performance of the students. The answers in the informal interview and feedbacks in the scientific journal of the students revealed that when PhET®ISbA were used in teaching, they acquired significant learning experiences which are synthesized into three big themes: learning Physics is fun, learning Physics is real, and learning Physics is simple and easy. Hence, the developed PhET®ISbA are found to be effective instructional materials in teaching Physics particularly Electromagnetism. The indicated findings and favorable feedback of students only prove that the developed PhET®ISbA are valid, thus, these are recommended to be used for classroom instruction for understanding Physics concepts for diverse learners.

Keywords: Physics Education Technology (PhET®), Interactive Simulation, Activities, Performance, Significant Learning Experiences