Comparative Evaluation of Indigenous, English and Bilingual Instruction in an Indigenous Knowledge-Integrated Blended Physical-Virtual Chemistry Laboratory: Effects on Students’ Practical Skills and Conceptual Understanding in South-East Nigeria

                @article{CRSIJ26000473,
                  author = {Nwokorie O. Smart},
                  title = {Comparative Evaluation of Indigenous, English and Bilingual Instruction in an Indigenous Knowledge-Integrated Blended Physical-Virtual Chemistry Laboratory: Effects on Students’ Practical Skills and Conceptual Understanding in South-East Nigeria},
                  journal = {Cosmo Research and Science International Journal},
                  year = {2026},
                  volume = {2},
                  number = {2},
                  pages = {763-786},
                  issn = {3108-1584},
                  url = {https://cosmorsij.com/published/CRSIJ26000473.pdf},
                  abstract = {Language in chemistry education helps students relate macroscopic and microscopic aspects of their understanding of chemistry, apply chemistry concepts to laboratory work, decipher the relation between chemistry and other disciplines, and interpret chemistry terms. Because English has recently been endorsed as the official instructional language of all levels of education in Nigeria, the researcher compared the effects of English-only, Igbo-only and strategically combines Igbo and English teachings on the integration of indigenous knowledge in a chemically-based science laboratory in Nigeria. The researcher collected data from 120 senior secondary school II students from 10 public, co-educational schools each from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. The instructional methods compared were integrated in a science laboratory which emphasises the science of chemistry using different, contextually relatable, examples to students’ environments. Conceptual understanding and practical skills were analysed with pre-test-adjusted ANCOVA using school cluster-robust adjustment. Comparisons were made between Holm-adjusted means. Differences at baseline were no significant. Language used for instruction was significantly related to both conceptual understanding and practical skills. For conceptual understanding, language used for instruction accounted for 32.3% of the variance, (F (2, 350) = 83.40, p < .001). For practical skills, language used for instruction accounted for 16.8% of the variance (F (2, 350) = 35.29, p < .001). Conceptual means were 62.93 for English, 68.67 for Igbo and 74.29 for bilingual. The means for practical skills were 62.04 for English, 65.01 for Igbo and 69.87 for bilingual. All comparisons were significant after Holm-adjustment, including the comparison of practical skills between Igbo and English (p = .025). The results illustrate that in culturally relevant ways, Igbo offers contexts for sense making. The study offers proof that in South East Nigeria, bilingual Chemistry Education integrates culturally relevant knowledge and is complementary to English Chemistry Education.},
                  keywords = {Chemistry education, Igbo language, bilingual instruction, translanguaging, indigenous knowledge, blended laboratory, virtual laboratory, practical skills, conceptual understanding, south-East Nigeria},
                  month = {September}
        }