Direct Measurement of the Impact of Teaching Experimentation in Physics Labs

Abstract

While there have been many calls to improve the quality of instructional physics labs, there exists little research on the effectiveness of lab instruction. This study provides a direct comparison between labs that have goals to reinforce physics content to those that emphasize experimentation skills. In this controlled study, all students attended the same lecture and discussion sections, had the same homework and exams, but attended labs that had one of two aims: teaching experimentation or reinforcing content. We compare students' engagement with experimentation during the lab as well as the impacts on students' exam performance and attitudes and beliefs about experimental physics. We find no measurable differences between lab conditions on students' exam performance. Nonetheless, we find measurable and significant improvements in students' engagement in expertlike experimentation practices and attitudes and beliefs about experimental physics for students in the experimentation labs. The benefits of the experimentation labs are stable across two subsequent semesters of implementation, as measured via standardized assessments. The results provide direct evidence of the extensive benefits of using labs to teach experimentation while directly demonstrating that shifting instructional goals and structure in labs can occur without cost to performance on course exams.

LAB Theory, HLAB Pedagogy, and Review of Laboratory Learning in Chemistry during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“… 11 , 12 Similarly, student experiences in physics laboratories have been shown to result in improved expert-like experimentation practices, attitudes, and beliefs about experimentation but with no significant impact on exam scores in the associated lecture course. 13 − 15 On the other end of the spectrum, the literature also features many examples of how technology can be used to prime students for learning in the laboratory. For example, virtual laboratory simulations and technique videos utilized in conjunction with hands-on experiments can improve both cognitive and affective learning compared to hands-on experiments alone.…”

Animation and interactivity in computer-based physics experiments to support the documentation of measured vector quantities in diagrams: An eye tracking study

“…Experimental skills can be roughly classified as skills required to prepare experiments, skills necessary to carry out experiments, or skills relevant to evaluate experimental data [14]. Recent studies have shown that lab courses focused on teaching experimentation do not necessarily convey less content knowledge than those concentrating on content reinforcement [15].…”

“Let’s just pretend”: Students’ shifts in frames during a content-reinforcement lab

“…To our knowledge, there is no research on the opposite: Students enter a physics lab environment where they are highly constrained in their procedures and outcomes but their prior lab experiences are in physics labs designed to engage students in experimentation (i.e., labs such as those described in Refs. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]). Sudden transitions in instructional environments provide a venue for identifying students' shift in frames throughout a single lab period.…”