Investigating the effectiveness of virtual physics education with a cognitive approach on students' academic achievement and learning strategies

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of virtual education of physics concepts (such as temperature and heat) with a cognitive approach on the academic achievement, cognitive levels of learning, and learning strategies of students. It was a quantitative research with quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design with two control and experimental groups. The research population included all male students in the 10th year of the experimental sciences field in Mashhad normal schools in the academic year 1400-1401. The research sample consisted of 67 students who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. To measure academic achievement, a researcher-made test was used, and to measure the cognitive learning strategies, the standard questionnaire of learning motivational strategies (Pentrich and DeGroot,1990) was used. Physics virtual education with a cognitive approach was provided for 8 sessions of 90 minutes for the experimental group, and the control group was subjected to conventional virtual education. To check the reliability of the researcher-made academic achievement test and the standard questionnaire of motivational learning strategies, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was computed as 0.74 and 0.76, respectively. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and inferential analysis of covariance were used. The results showed the effectiveness of this educational approach in improving learning, academic achievement and strengthening the learning strategies of students. Based on the findings, it can be said that teaching with a cognitive approach facilitates the formation process of knowledge structure in learners and increases their understanding of educational concepts.