Assessing the Impact of Virtual Reality on Senior Secondary Students' Conceptual Understanding of Simple AC Circuits in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research assessed the impact of virtual reality on students’ conceptual understanding of simple alternating current circuits in Kwara State, Nigeria, and examined its effects on students’ self-efficacy and motivation. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest single-group design. Senior School II (SS II) Physics students from Kwara State public secondary schools formed the population, and 163 students were selected through a multistage sampling technique from three intact classes across Kwara Central, Kwara North, and Kwara South. Three validated instruments were used for data collection: the Simple Alternating Current Circuit Conceptual Understanding Test, the Physics Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Students’ Academic Motivation Questionnaire, having reliability coefficients of 0.95, 0.77, and 0.93, respectively. The treatment involved exposing students to virtual reality-based instruction for four weeks using immersive simulations and interactive learning environments to facilitate understanding of Simple alternating current circuit concepts. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics: a paired-samples t-test at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that virtual reality instruction significantly improved students’ conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and motivation, as posttest mean scores were higher than pretest scores in all cases. The results indicated that pretest and posttest scores differed significantly, rejecting the null hypotheses. The study found that virtual reality is a useful teaching tool for improving physics learning outcomes and suggests incorporating it into classroom education.