COMPUTER SIMULATION IN TEACHING ELECTROMAGNETISM: A WAY TO

INCREASE THE TEST SCORES OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS IN PHYSICS

An Action Research
Presented to
The Planning and Research Unit
of Ormoc City Division
Ormoc City, Philippines

by

Carina D. Cabuguas
September 2016
 ABSTRACT

This study utilized a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest

design which aimed to investigate the effect of computer simulation in teaching

electromagnetism to the test scores of Grade 10 students in Physics.

The experimental group was exposed to computer simulation using the inquiry-based

teaching model in a collaborative setting. On the other hand, the control group utilized the

traditional laboratory method which used real equipments for laboratory experiments and lecture

discussion to clarify concepts and correct misconceptions.

The subjects of the study were students from the two intact classes of fourth year high

school students of Dolores National High School in the S.Y. 2016 – 2017. Thirty students from

each class were chosen by match pairing them in terms of gender, age, and grade point average

in Science III. This was to ensure that students from experimental group were comparable to the

students from control group.

The test instruments used in this study was the division-validated test in

electromagnetism. To analyze the data, t-test was applied to test the significance of results.

Statistics used were subjected to.05 level of significance.

This study revealed the following results: Both the experimental group which used

computer simulation and control group which used traditional laboratory method had showed a

significant increase in their mean percentage score (MPS) from pretest to posttest in

electromagnetism. Furthermore, comparisons between the post-test results of the control and

experimental group revealed that there is a significant difference between the results.
 CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

The science of Physics explores the forces that relate energy and matter, including

electricity, magnetism, sound, optics and other phenomena. It delves the macroscopic world as

well as the sub – atomic world. Hence, understanding the different concepts in Physics is indeed

the utmost priority. However an increasing number of literatures have revealed the remarkable

gap in the understanding of the students across level and races, in the different concepts in

Physics (Canlas, 2012; Enriquez, 2007; Mendoza 1998).

In K12 curriculum, the second quarter is devoted to Physics. In my class I have

noticed that among quarterly tests, second quarter had the lowest mean percentage score (mps).

Furthermore, item analysis revealed that most of the least learned skills are those of the concepts

of electromagnetism. Many studies were conducted from the past to probe the factors and

reasons for each performance. Results identified the following; negative attitude of students in

Physics (Semela, 2010); Physics is boring and hard to understand (Ornek, Robinson, and

Haugan, 2008), and cannot visualize abstract concepts (Cildir, 2005), thus, they lose interest in

the subject and mostly let their mind wander on different things instead of analyzing the concepts

discussed.

On the other hand, the advent of ICT has greatly advanced the different sectors of the

society. It has greatly improved understanding and has changed the lifestyle of the people.

Learners of today become very dependent with computers; hence, the academe is experiencing

paradigm shift. Along learning, ICT has revealed to be both advantageous and disadvantageous.

Through computers, teaching and learning activities become enjoyable and student learn

willingly by playing and enjoying during these activities (Isman, 2005). Computers can provide

text, graph, video, picture, animation and simulation (Tekbiyek, Konur, and Piraza,2007).
 Simulations help tremendously with communicating visual models, fostering conceptual

development, illustrating everyday life that are not visible to the eye, and providing opportunities

for interactive engagement in class (Perkins, et. al. 2003). Thus, computer plays an important

role in concretizing abstract concepts, which are difficult for children to learn (Akipinar, 2005).

With these issues and gaps I identified, I decided to use teaching strategies that can

improve the understanding of students toward Physics. Since students nowadays are technology

savvy, I thought of using computers to improve learning Physics. Computer is one if not the most

commonly used technology and it offers a wide variety of animations and simulations that help

abstract concepts be visualized. Aside from that, simulation is fun due to its game-like quality.

Thus, I would like to investigate the effect of computer simulation in teaching

electromagnetism towards students’ test scores in Grade 10 physics in Dolores National High

School.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

I would like find out whether the use of computer simulation in teaching

electromagnetism affects the test scores of Grade 10 students in Physics in Dolores National

High School. Specifically it aims to answer the following questions:

1. What is the pre-test mean percentage score (MPS) in Electromagnetism of the

experimental and control group?

2. What is the post-test mean percentage score (MPS) in Electromagnetism of the

experimental and control group?

3. Is there a significant increase in the mean percentage score in Electromagnetism of

students exposed to computer simulation and traditional laboratory method in

teaching?
 4. Is there a significant difference in the post-test mean percentage score in

electromagnetism between the experimental and control group?

METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGNS

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of computer simulation in teaching

Electromagnetism on the test scores of grade 10 students in Physics in Dolores National High

School. This study focused to the topics in Electromagnetism since concepts on these topics are

mostly abstract. The subjects of the study were the Grade 10 students in Dolores National High

School who were divided into two groups. Each group was exposed to the different teaching

methods. The experimental group was subjected to a method of teaching which uses computer

simulation while the control group was exposed to traditional laboratory method which used the

actual laboratory equipments. The effects of the two teaching approaches toward the attitude and

learning outcomes of students were then measured and evaluated. To measure the effects of the

two teaching methods on the learning outcomes of students, a pre-test and a post-test were given

before and after the intervention.

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Teaching Methods

- Hands-on Computer Test Scores in

Simulation Electromagnetism

- Traditional Laboratory
Method

Figure 1. Framework of the Study

Research Design

This study used a quasi - experimental design. Two sections in fourth year of Dolores

National High School were randomly assigned as control and experimental group.

Sampling

The subjects of this study were the Grade 10 Students in Dolores National High School.

Dolores National High School has four sections in Grade 10 composed of 166 students. Out of

the four sections, only two sections were included in the study. The four sections were randomly

assigned as control and experimental group by draw lots. Only 30 students from each section or a

total of 60 students were the actual subjects. Out of 30 students of each section, there were 15

males and 15 females. To equate the two groups the subjects for experimental group were match

paired by the subjects in control group in terms of age, gender, and grade point average in Grade

9 Science.

Data Collection

To gather the data, the research instruments used in this study was the teacher-made test

taken from 2015 division unified test for the second quarter.

The Teacher-made Test measured the students’ achievement in electromagnetism in

terms of their performance in the 30-item Test before and after the intervention.

Research Procedure

Before I conducted the study, permission was asked from the school principal and

Schools Division Superintendent to allow the conduct of the study. The principal gave advice to

the I.T. coordinator to allow me to use the computer laboratory within the span of the study.
 A week prior to the conduct of the study, the experimental group was oriented on the

teaching instruction that will be used for the following days. They were also exposed to

computers and simulations for the purpose of familiarization prior to the study.

The test in electromagnetism was conducted to the subjects a day before the actual

conduct of the study. This test was conducted to measure the student’s prior knowledge.

After the orientation of the experimental group on the teaching instructions and pre-test

on attitude test and test in basic circuits, the actual study was then conducted. Although, it was

made sure that each class (experimental and control) were taught following the assigned

treatments, students did not know that they were part of the experiment. I also made sure that

there was a clear distinction between the teaching strategies employed in experimental and

control group.

The strategy employed in the study for both the control and experimental groups was

collaborative learning. Five (5) students worked together in performing the task. I made sure that

the subjects of the study were divided among the groups. Also, the achievements of the students

on the previous grading period were taken into consideration in assigning the students to

different groups.

The researcher prepared eight (5) lesson plans and eight (5) activity sheets. For

experimental group the researcher used inquiry-based strategy. The inquiry model that was

utilized in the study was the 5-step cyclic inquiry model which involves; Ask, Investigate,

Create, Discuss, and Reflect.

For every lesson one activity was prepared and each activity was provided with computer

simulation. Every activity was designed to be finished in one hour. Group discussion were done

a day after the activity. The students discussed within their group the information they gathered
during the activity using computer simulation to arrive at a single and final output. After the

group discussion, each group then discussed the results of their activity. I facilitated class

discussions by allowing other group to ask questions and give comments to the output of the

group presenting.

On the other hand, the control group used the traditional laboratory method. I used my

usual approach in teaching the concepts in electromagnetism. The laboratory activity was using

actual laboratory. No simulation was used in any part of the lesson.

After all the lessons in electromagnetism were tackled, the post-test on electromagnetism

was given to the two classes. This determined whether there was an increase on student’s test

score after the intervention.

Data Processing

I did quantitative analysis to determine the test scores of students in electromagnetism

after they were exposed to computer simulation and traditional laboratory method of teaching.

Simple frequency count and weighted mean were employed in treating the pretest and post-test

on content. To identify the effectiveness of using computer simulation, I compared the result of

the pre-test and the post-test of the teacher-made test in control group and experimental group as

well as the post-test results of the control and experimental group were also compared. To

compare the results, t tests were used to determine if there were significant differences among

the results. The test was subjected to .05 level of significance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the results of the data analysis of the study. This study aimed to

assess the effect of computer simulation on test scores of Grade 10 students in Physics.
Prior Knowledge of Students

Before the experimental and control group were subjected to computer simulation and

traditional laboratory method respectively, their prior knowledge on basic circuit were measured

using the test in basic circuit. The result is shown on the table below.

Table 1. Pre-Test Result

Control Experimental Computed Critical Interpretation

Group Group Difference T T
MPS (N=30)
19 (N=30)
21 2 1.1628 2.0017 Not Significant
SD 5 8
The result in table 1 shows that experimental and control group both had scored poorly

on the pre-test in electromagnetism. The table shows that there was a difference 2 of the MPS of

the experimental and control group. To understand what the difference mean, the t-test was

conducted with α=.05 and a d.f. of 58, the t value is equal to 2.0017. However, based on the

table, the computed value of t was only 1.1628. Thus, it was assumed based on the result that the

two groups are of the same level of knowledge in electromagnetism prior to the intervention.

Post-Test Results

After the interventions of both the control and experimental group, wherein the control

group was subjected to the usual laboratory method and the experimental group was subjected to

the computer simulation, were given the post tests in electromagnetism. The result is shown in

Table 2.
 Table 2. Post-test result

Control Experimental Computed Critical Interpretation

Group Group Difference T T
(N=30) (N=30)
MPS 30 45 2.0017 Significant
SD 10 12 15 4.504
Based on the result the experimental group got a higher MPS of 45 compared to the

control group with an MPS of 30. They had a difference of MPS difference of 15.

To get the level of significance of difference obtained, the t-test for independent sample

means was administered. An α of .05 and df of 58, the t-value is 2.0017. The obtained t-value of

the post-test results was 4.504 which was higher than the t-value of .05 level of significance.

This shows that there is a significant difference between the post-test results of the experimental

and control group in favor of the experimental group.

Students’ Achievement

To determine the achievement of students in Electromagnetism on both the control and

experimental group the pre-test and post-test results in electromagnetism were compared as

shown in the Table 4

Table 4. Pre-test vs Post test (Test in Electromagnetism)

Group Pre-Test Post-Test Mean Computed T Critical T

MPS SD MPS SD Difference
Control 19 5 30 10 11 7.586 2.0017 Significant
Experimental 21 8 45 12 24 12.542 2.0017 Significant
The result shows that both the experimental group and control group had higher mean

score in post-test over pre-test. T-test also revealed that there is a significant increase of the post

test results of the two groups over the pre-test result.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the use of computer

simulation in teaching electromagnetism is effective in increasing the test score of grade 10

students in Physics.

Recommendation

Based on this study the following recommendations are proposed:

1. Science teachers should use computer simulation specifically in teaching

electromagnetism.

2. Investigate computer simulation further, specifically on its effects to learner with varied

intelligence.

3. For further studies, it is recommended to investigate the effect of computer simulation to

other topics in physics or to other subjects.

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