The Best of Two Worlds: A Systematic Review on Combining Real and Virtual Experiments in Science Education

Conducting experiments fosters conceptual understanding in science education. In various studies, combinations of real (hands-on) and virtual (computer-simulated) experiments have been shown to be especially helpful for gaining conceptual understanding. The present systematic review, based on 42 experimental studies, focuses on the following: (1) What is the relative effectiveness of combining real and virtual experiments compared with a single type of experimentation? (2) Which sequence of real and virtual experiments is most effective? The results indicate that (1) in most cases combinations of real and virtual experiments promote conceptual understanding better than a single type of experimentation, and (2) there is no evidence for the superiority of a particular sequence. We conclude that for combining real and virtual experiments, apart from the individual affordances and the learning objectives of the different experiment types, especially their specific function for the learning task must be considered.