YouTube vs. Lehrmittel – Lernwirksamkeit von Erklärvideos für den Naturwissenschaftsunterricht

Educational videos are increasingly gaining importance for science education. To examine potential learning gains from using educational videos compared to text-based learning materials and to exploratively examine the effect of choice options on learning gains, an experimental study was conducted. A total of 102 students from six secondary school classes independently completed a 60-minute learning unit in their classroom. Participants were assigned to three experimental conditions (learning unit without educational video, learning unit with one predetermined educational textbook video, learning unit with four selectable educational YouTube videos), and learning gains were assessed using pre- and post-tests. The results suggest that explanatory videos exhibit significantly greater learning effectiveness compared to purely text-based learning materials. No significant effect of choice was found. Suggestions for future studies are discussed to examine this relationship more closely.