INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 7, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2018 ISSN 2277-8616 63 IJSTR©2018 www.ijstr.org Blended Learning Approach: Effect On Students’ Academic Achievement And Practical Skills In Science Laboratories Rhesa T. Hinampas, Catherine R. Murillo, Denis A. Tan, Roxette U. Layosa Abstract: A research investigation was conducted to find out the effect of blended learning approach on students’ academic achievement and practical skills in science laboratories. Specifically, it aimed to: determine the level of academic achievement of students as exposed to blended learning approach and to those exposed to non-blended learning approach; ascertain the practical skills of students exhibited when exposed to blended learning approach and to those exposed to non-blended learning approach in terms of: questioning, designing, communicating, recording, analyzing, and interpreting; compare the academic achievement of students toward science laboratories when exposed to blended learning approach and non-blended learning approach; and differentiate the practical skills exhibited by students toward science laboratories when exposed to blended learning approach and non-blended learning approach. The study utilized the quasi-experimental design to determine the students’ academic achievement and practical skills in science laboratories through blended learning approach. Two intact classes such as third section class exposed to blended learning approach and second section class exposed to non-blended learning approach were administered with a developed teacher-made test questions and adapted questionnaires on practical skills inventory. Descriptive statistics such as mean and percentages, and analysis of covariance were also used. Results showed that those students exposed to blended learning improved their academic achievement from pre-test to posttest and leveled-up their scores with those students non-exposed to blended learning. The practical skills manifested by students were interpreting, communicating, designing, recording, analyzing, and questioning. Further results showed no significant difference existed between academic achievement of students exposed to blended learning approach and to those exposed to non-blended learning approach, both improved their performances, thus failed to reject the stated null hypothesis. There is significant difference in the practical skills manifested between those students exposed to blended learning approach and those non-exposed to blended learning approach, thus rejecting the stated null hypothesis. Index Terms: Academic Achievement, Blended Learning, Practical Skills, Science Laboratories ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION A pedagogical approach in science education has been dynamic through the years. It is one way of developing how the teachers teach and how the students learn. However, as the world become connected all around the globe and become globally competitive in all aspects, the way of teaching science education has also changed. Students nowadays are very exposed to the online world. They are called the Millennials, they are the new generation of learners, the largest and diverse students, where they prefer variety of active learning. In the Philippines, many universities and laboratory high schools offer pure science curriculum where students are exposed to different subjects, science laboratories and science researches. Yet, it has been observed that students are passive during lectures and discussions because whenever they feel bored with their lessons, their attention quickly shifts elsewhere. As a result, the students’ performance in Science National Achievement Test (NAT) in the country continues to be the most difficult field of discipline in basic education, thus students fail to understand basic concepts [19]. To address the poor achievement in Science and to attain the goals of science education, teaching strategy should be developed for science teachers in order to achieve meaningful and retentive learning [18]. Interestingly, many of the components of ideal learning environment such as less lectures, use of multimedia as well as collaborating with peers, are some of the same techniques research has shown to be effective [5]. With the mandate of K to 12 Philippine Education Program, the traditional way of teaching and learning should be converted to electronic learning where ICT skills and technologies were introduced to this said millennials and now commonly known as the 21 st century learners. Students were able to become dynamic in learning. They can use the online world as avenue for learning. Their ideas and knowledge are not contained in a four-walled classroom but instead they can learn with the world [20]. One of the most promising strategies in the integration of interactive lessons with the innovative and technological advances of the virtual environment is the blended learning approach [17]. It is an innovative concept that embraces the advantages of both traditional teaching in the classroom and ICT supported learning including both offline learning and online learning [9]. Through this new way of learning, students may be able to improve and develop their practical skills. Practical skill is used to enhance skills that are important to help students understand and develop their abilities especially in science laboratories. These skills include questioning, recording, designing, communicating, analyzing and interpreting [1]. Practical skills clearly include an individual’s competency in the manipulation of a particular piece of apparatus/equipment and many other skills which becomes unfeasible to assess a student’s competency within the limited time available in school science laboratories. With _____________________________  Rhesa T. Hinampas is a faculty of the College of Education, Central Mindanao University (CMU), Philippines. She is assigned to teach Science courses in the Laboratory High School. +639068822042, rthinampas@cmu.edu.ph  Catherine R. Murillo is also a faculty of the College of Education, Central Mindanao University (CMU), Philippines. She is currently the Science Division Coordinator of the Laboratory High School and is handling science courses. +6391773110966, catherine.murillo19@yahoo.com  Denis A. Tan is a faculty of the College of Education, Central Mindanao University (CMU), Philippines. She is currently the School Principal of the CMU Laboratory High School and the Director of the Office of Admissions, Scholarships and Placement in the same university. +639177103100, teacher.tansined@gmail.com  Roxette U. Layosa is the research assistant of this scientific investigation. +639168515991, layosaroxette@gmail.com