The Effectiveness of a Proposed Instructional Program, based on the Hypothetical/Virtual reality, in Promoting Social Skills of 10th grade in Physics Subject

Abstract

The PhET simulation programme is considered one of the most innovative technologies in contemporary education that has a positive influence on students’ academic and social development.  In the current quasi-experimental study, 44 tenth-grade students participated and were equally assigned to two groups: an experimental group and a control group (n = 22 per group). Both groups completed pre- and post-tests using a researcher-developed social skills questionnaire.  Some psychometric properties such as item analysis, validity and reliability were extracted for the questionnaire. A sufficient Cronbach’s alpha of 0.83 and split-half reliability of 0.71 and test re-test of 0.81 were reported, respectively. Normality of the data was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and no deviations from normality were detected (p-value for the Kolmogorov test > 0.05). Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations), independent sample t-test, chi-square and analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were utilized for the data analyses. The result showed statistically significant differences between groups in social skills, F= 16.13, p=.0002, η²p= .282, indicating that the students in the experimental group gained significant benefits from their participation in the intervention. This finding suggests that the use of PhET simulations had a meaningful and positive impact on enhancing students’ social skills.