Survey of Undergraduate Students’ Goals and Achievement Strategies for Laboratory Coursework

Abstract

Previous work has shown a misalignment between the goals of faculty and students for laboratory coursework. Although faculty often list learning techniques and developing critical thinking skills as goals for laboratory, students tend to focus on affective goals, such as finishing lab early and obtaining good grades. The goals of faculty have been thoroughly investigated through both qualitative and large-scale quantitative studies. However, studies on student goals for laboratory coursework have primarily been conducted using qualitative methods. In order to provide a more comprehensive idea of students' goals in the laboratory, we have designed a brief, online survey. The survey was used to investigate students' goals in the laboratory and build on existing literature by including survey questions that catalog how students plan on achieving their goals. In this study, we discuss results about students' goals and achievement strategies at the beginning of the semester and after completing the laboratory portion of the course. Anonymous responses, via the online survey, were collected from undergraduate students enrolled in chemistry courses at two Midwestern universities. These results are intended to inform the discussion among faculty regarding how to change laboratory coursework and the instruction to better align faculty and student goals.

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