“DIGITAL VIDEO GUIDES AS A TOOL IN ENHANCING LABORATORY SKILLS IN

CONDUCTING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT OF GRADE 8 SPED STUDENTS

IN SUBIC NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL”

I. INTRODUCTION

Rationale

Laboratory experiences have been given a central role in science

education. Laboratory classes provide students with first-hand experience

with course concepts and with the opportunity to explore methods used by

scientists in their discipline. Leading a laboratory session has particular

challenges and opportunities that differ from those in a standard

classroom environment. Many benefits are said to come from engaging

students in laboratory activities such as cognitive abilities, skills, concepts,

attitudes and understanding the nature of science (Shulman and Tamir,

1973). Science is different from any other subject. In order to understand

its concepts, one has to look beyond the books and conventional

classroom teaching. Effective teaching and learning of science involves

seeing, handling, and manipulating real objects and materials. It is,

therefore, important to explore alternative approaches to maximize the

learning potential of the students.

The researcher experienced, students often arrive at results with no

clear idea of the techniques employed, the skill to conduct the experiment,

or understanding of the underlying scientific principle. This perception is

shared with colleagues within the school and further afield. IT approaches

to support lecture-based learning include multimedia (Rodrigues et al.,)

and podcasting (Salmon and Edirisingha, 2008). In a separate study

(Gomez et al., 2008. The use of video and audio pod files to support

undergraduate lectures and laboratory classes in physiology.) Using

videos in teaching is not new. They date back to prehistoric times when

cave instructors used 16mm projectors to show cave students examples

of insurance company marketing commercials in business courses (Berk,

R. A., 2009). Video as a change instrument in the classroom and

laboratory has undertaken a unique cycle of adoption over time.

Broadcast television and film were first used sparingly, primarily as out-of-

the classroom forms of enrichment (A.D. Greenberg, et al., 2012).

Presenting the cycle in the year 1960-1970s, television films were on

trend, 1980, video tapes were used, and 1990s marked booming of Two-

way videoconferencing, camcorders and video CDs. In the year 2000,

DVDs, streaming videos, the popularly youtube, and camera-enabled

smartphones were in fashion (Zanetis, J. et al., 2012).

This study aims to impart a relevant idea on how to enhance the

laboratory hands-on skills of students through learner control and

multimedia interpretations as a guide in doing laboratory experiments and

will open opportunity for teachers and students to use multimedia

presentations especially with the use of video-based materials to create

stronger memory and to reinforce laboratory instruction. Further, teachers

will be imparted with knowledge on how to motivate, explain, guide

students in understanding the lesson, and deliver effective and better

results and outputs.

Statement of the Problem

This study seeks to answer the significance of Digital Video Guides as

a Tool in Enhancing the Laboratory Skills in Conducting Science

Experiment

1. What is the demographic profile of the grade 8 SPED

students of Subic National High School?

 2. What is the performance of the students before engaging

to digital video presentations?

3. To what extend did the Digital Video Guide improved the

level of performance of Grade 8 SPED Students of Subic

National High School?

Hypothesis

There is no significant difference in the laboratory skills Subic

National High School before and after the use of digital video guides.

Significance of the Study

To the Administrators. This study will serve as a benchmark

in identifying the effectiveness of using digital video guides in

enhancing laboratory skills in conducting science experiment of

grade 8 students of Subic National High School.

To the Teachers. This study will provide teachers with

knowledge on how to motivate, explain, guide students in

understanding the lesson, and deliver effective and better results

and outputs.

To the Students. This study aims to impart a relevant idea on

how to enhance their laboratory hands-on skills through learner

control and multimedia interpretations as a guide in doing

laboratory experiments.
II. METHODOLOGY

Type of Study

The Researcher uses Descriptive-Quantitative approach.

Descriptive research involves gathering data that describes events

and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data

collection (Glass & Hopkins, 1984). It often uses visual aids such as

graphs and charts to aid reader in the understanding the data

distribution.

With this, the researcher believes that using this approach is

appropriate since this study aims to identify the effectiveness of using

digital video guide instruction in enhancing laboratory skills of grade 8

students at Subic National High School. The researcher aims to impart

a relevant idea on how to enhance the laboratory hands-on skills of

students through learner control and multimedia interpretations as a

guide in doing laboratory experiments.

Participants

The respondents will be chosen through Convenience

Sampling. This is a type of non-probability sampling in which

respondents are chosen in the most convenient way in order to

answer a certain phenomenon (Cruz, et.al. 2013)

The researcher identifies Grade 8 Daisy (with 20 boys and 22

girls) of Subic National High School as the respondents of this study.

The researcher chooses this class because of convenience since he

supervises the science subject.

Data Collection Plan

The researcher will conduct a pre-test. After the pre-test, the

students will do the 1st Activity entitled: “Which is Matter, which is not?”

The students will watch the prepared digital video guide before doing

the laboratory procedures, and then teacher will use it as springboard

of the discussion, after doing the activity, a post activity discussion will

be conducted and students will answer the guide questions.

Next, the researcher will hold the 2nd Activity entitled: Atoms:

Inside Out, once again students will watch the prepared digital video

guide and after that a post activity will be done following the guide

questions.

Lastly, the researcher will conduct the post-test to see if there

is a significant improvement in their laboratory skills using the digital

video guides. This will include answering the test questions and

checking of the answers.

Instrument

The researcher will use a close-ended pre-test and post-test

questionnaire to answer the objectives of the study. Pre-test is often

referred to as a baseline material, is used before the application of a

treatment while post-test is used after the experimental treatment

Video Production

A limited budget means the researcher will produce the

videos himself even though he had no professional AV training,

and he will use his smartphone — a low-cost, domestic video

camera. Each digital videos will be filmed outside of timetabled

classes with a camera operator and the researcher as

demonstrators and experimental subjects. There will be no

rehearsal and the videos will be filmed in a single take, with the

camera hand-held and moving around the performers and

equipment as necessary (with preparation/discussion taking

around five times as long as filming). Videotape will be

digitised and edited using Powder Director. The smartphones’

built-in microphone was of low-quality and picked up noise

from the tape mechanism. The researcher attempted to filter

the background noise post-production, but found it easier and

faster to overlay a new soundtrack using Audacity. For each

video guides, the video recording will split into shorter video

clips of 2–4min duration which we termed ‘videopods’; each

covered one aspect of the lesson. On each videopod, following

addition of the audio soundtrack, on-screen labels identifying

equipment and connections were added, and subtitles layered.

Although the researcher were not trained in video post-

production we found basic editing in Power Director relatively

intuitive.
“DIGITAL VIDEO GUIDES AS A TOOL IN ENHANCING LABORATORY SKILLS IN
CONDUCTING SCIENCE EXPERIMENT OF GRADE 8 STUDENTS
IN SUBIC NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL”

KARL LYNDON P. LIM

An Action Research Proposal

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School
President Ramon Magsaysay State University
Castillejos, Campus
In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the
Degree Master of Arts in Education
Major in Educational Administration
Non-Formal Education
November 2018