Teacher Readiness, Student Participation and Sustainable Utilisation of Blended Physical–Virtual Chemistry Laboratories in South-East Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68050/JAMS.2026.727Keywords:
Chemistry education, teacher readiness, South-East NigeriaAbstract
This study investigates how three variants of lesson configuration: physical laboratory, virtual laboratory and integrated (blended) laboratory, influence teaching readiness and student participation in the sustainable utilisation of chemistry laboratories. The study was restricted to South-east Nigeria and evaluated 30 public secondary schools and 90 chemistry teachers and 600 senior secondary school students. Based on the primary research findings, the acceptance level of teaching readiness among the chemistry teachers investigated was high, in all the three laboratory variants. Student participation was found to be generally low, with inclination towards cognitive and collaborative participation. The findings suggest that the acceptance of sustainable utilisation of laboratory was generally positive and influenced by several factors including the practicality and support of the teachers and the administration. One way ANOVA revealed a significant difference, at p < 0.001, in the mean scores of teacher readiness, student participation and sustainable utilisation in all the three laboratory variants. The blended condition outperformed the others in terms of the mean scores on readiness (M = 85.63), participation (M = 86.53), and sustainable utilisation (M = 83.55). Furthermore, all pairwise comparisons among the conditions were significant at p < .001. In the cluster-robust model, teacher readiness and school-level student participation were predictors of sustainable utilisation and were significant (teacher readiness: B = .340, p < .001; school-level student participation: B = .554, p = .002), and the remaining mechanisms of action (modality) lost significance. The results showed that, of the three available conditions, blended conditions showed the best results. Considering the results, the main reason for blended conditions showing better results is teacher capacity and student participation. The study developed and proved that integration of Chemistry laboratory services in South-East Nigeria is feasible through different, yet complementary, methods and approaches, especially if teacher training and capacity development is incorporated, along with the use of digital and other offline resources, functional school laboratories and continuous and regular school-level inspection.
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