When the whole is greater than the sum of its parts: Combining real and virtual experiments in science education

Inquiry learning, which is traditionally implemented with real, hands-on experiments, has proven to be an effective way to foster students' conceptual understanding in science. Nowadays, inquiry learning can also be implemented with virtual experiments (interactive simulations) or combinations of real and virtual experiments. The goal of this study was to investigate whether a combination of real and virtual experiments is more effective for fostering students' conceptual understanding than a single real experiment. Moreover, the influence of the sequence of experiments within combined real and virtual experiments was evaluated. In the present study, 202 middle school students participated in an inquiry learning lesson working with either a combination of real and virtual experiments in two different sequences or the real, hands-on experiment only. As the main dependent variable, students' conceptual understanding was assessed with a 15-item multiple-choice test. Performance was analyzed with an ANCOVA with the students' posttest scores as dependent variable while controlling for their pre-test scores. In line with our expectations, inquiry learning fostered students' conceptual understanding in physics; moreover, students in the combination conditions learned more than students in the single experiment condition. The latter can be explained by the complementary advantages offered by the different experimentation formats. Concerning the sequence of experiments, both combinations were equally effective for fostering students' conceptual understanding. We conclude that combinations of real and virtual experiments can be recommended for inquiry learning in science education regardless of their sequence.