الملخص الإنجليزي
The purpose of this study was to identify the role of the virtual laboratory in development science processes among students from the chemistry teachers' perceptions in the Sharqiyah South Governorate schools in Oman. A descriptive study design was
used, and 100 male and female chemistry teachers were randomly selected from Al Sharqiyah South Governorate. To achieve its objectives, a questionnaire consisting of (24) phrases and consisting of five dimensions was designed. The external validity of the tool was confirmed by presenting it to (17) arbitrators (experts), and the reliability of the tool was calculated to (0.87).
The findings showed that the relative importance of the virtual laboratory in developing science operations ranged from (83% to 87%) with a high rating. The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences due to the years of experience variable in favour of the communication dimensions at the level of statistical significance (0.05≥α), while the results did not show any statistically significant differences due to the gender and educational stage variables, as well as the interaction between the three variables.
In the light of the above results, number of recommendations and suggestions were proposed, such as, linking between science processes and methods of developing them using the virtual laboratory, conducting teacher's training courses on activating the virtual laboratory, curriculum authors to include virtual laboratories in science curricula, and the integration of virtual labs into the traditional one.
