Exploring Middle School Students’ Science Learning and Discourse in Physical and Virtual Labs

Abstract

This study compared middle school students’ science learning and discourse patterns in physical and virtual labs. Students in virtual labs had significantly higher learning gains than students in the physical labs on a pre and post-test content knowledge test. To understand the difference in learning gains, we analyzed the discourse of the students and teacher as they worked in groups during the labs. We found three main categories of discourse: conceptual talk, task-based talk, and teacher scaffolding. Our analysis of discourse showed that students in the virtual group engaged in more conceptual talk than the physical group, while the physical group had more task-based talk. We also found the teacher provided more conceptual scaffolding during virtual labs than physical labs. \