IMPACT OF USING PHYSICS EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY (PhET) SIMULATIONS IN TEACHING ELECTROMAGNETISM ON LEARNER PERFORMANCE AND ATTITUDE

This study investigated the impact of using Physics Education Technology (PhET) simulations in teaching Electromagnetism on the learners’ performance. Also, the study sort to establish the impact of using PhET simulations on the learners’ attitude towards Electromagnetism. The study was done on sixty-three 11th grade learners from Kantanshi Secondary School in Mufulira District of Zambia. Two intact grade-11 classes classes were randomly selected for this study. Then the two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental and the control groups respectively. A non-equivalent group pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental research design was used. The experimental group (N = 33) and the control group (N = 30) were taught the topic of Electromagnetism using PhET simulations and the traditional lecture method respectively. The collected data were analysed using t-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests in SPSS version 20. The findings of the research were that; the use of PhET simulations had a significant positive impact on the learners’ performance in Electromagnetism (i.e. t = 3.253 ; df = 61 ; p = 0.002). PhET simulations equally had a significant positive impact on the learner’s attitude towards Electromagnetism (i.e. U = 378.0; p = 0.050 ). Therefore, the study recommends the use of PhET simulations rather than the traditional lecture method in teaching electromagnetism.