Effect of Virtual Laboratory-Supplemented Instruction on Academic Achievement and Attitudes Toward Cell Division among Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Virtual Laboratory-supplemented instruction on secondary school students’ achievement and attitudes toward Cell Division in Biology. A quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test non-equivalent control-group design was adopted. The sample comprised 194 students from two intact classes in a public secondary school, with 95 assigned to the Virtual Laboratory-supplemented group and 99 to the Lecture-only group. The intervention supplemented teacher-led instruction with three virtual laboratory sessions covering general cell structure, mitosis, and meiosis. Achievement data were analysed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with pre-test achievement as the covariate, alongside an HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust sensitivity analysis. Attitude change was examined using Welch’s independent-samples t-test and the Mann–Whitney U test. The Virtual Laboratory-supplemented group had a higher adjusted post-test achievement mean (62.74) than the Lecture-only group (40.92), representing an adjusted mean difference of 21.82 percentage points. The instructional-group effect was statistically significant, F(1, 191) = 124.213, p < .001, partial η² = .394. The HC3 analysis confirmed the robustness of this effect, t = 10.843, p < .001, 95% CI [17.874, 25.761]. Attitude change was also significantly greater in the Virtual Laboratory-supplemented group, Welch’s t(102.467) = 13.420, p < .001, r = .68; the Mann–Whitney U test yielded a consistent result, U = 1,225.50, z = −9.468, p < .001. The findings suggest that structured virtual laboratory activities can enhance Biology achievement and attitudes toward Cell Division within the study context.