Enhancing the Learning Environment of Undergraduate Physics Laboratories to Promote Students' Scientific Inquiry Processes

• In Event: 35.059 - Promoting Learning Environments That Increase Student Engagement and Achievement in STEM Classrooms

Abstract

The lack of students’ inquiry processes in undergraduate science laboratories is an ongoing concern. To try to ameliorate this concern, the authors sought to initiate changes to the learning environment of the first-year undergraduate physics laboratories at their university by, (a) redesigning the activities students engaged in, and (b) providing enhanced guidance for laboratory instructors. The Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Learning Environment Scale (UPLLES) and interpretive interviews were used to explore students’ perceptions of the physics laboratory learning environments and the nature of the thinking they engaged in during the laboratory sessions of two key first year Physics courses. Analysis of both quantitative and interview data suggests strongly that students responded positively to the changes in line with the research's aims.

Authors

• Gregory P. Thomas, University of Alberta

• Al Meldrum, The University of Alberta