Effect of PhET-Assisted Discovery Learning on Junior High School Students’ Mathematical Conceptual Understanding
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Janna Aprilia Azhara
Muhammad Zaki
Guntur Maulana Muhammad
Measures of central tendency are taught through procedures that may leave students with limited opportunities to explore their underlying relationships. This quasi-experimental study compared discovery learning supported by PhET simulations with discovery learning without simulation support in two intact Grade VIII classes at SMP Negeri 2 Langsa, Indonesia. The posttest-only design involved 50 students (25 per class), and conceptual understanding was assessed using essay responses about statistical concepts. The PhET-supported class had a higher mean posttest score (M = 78.76, SD = 17.06) than the comparison class (M = 62.88, SD = 21.50). The student-level independent-samples test yielded t(48) = 2.89, p = .006, a mean difference of 15.88 points (95% CI [4.84, 26.92]), and Cohen’s d = 0.82. The result indicates higher observed performance in the PhET-supported class. However, with one intact class in each condition and no pretest, class-related differences cannot be separated from the instructional contrast. The findings offer a preliminary classroom-level rationale for examining simulation-supported discovery activities in statistics instruction using better-controlled designs
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