The perceptions, views and opinions of university students about physics learning during undergraduate laboratory work

Abstract

The physics laboratory has long been a distinctive feature of physics education. It has been given a central role in the teaching and learning of physics at school and undergraduate levels in universities. The literature indicates that science educators have suggested that there are academically rich benefits in the learning and understanding of physics based on laboratory work. However, some educators have begun to raise serious and valid questions about the effectiveness of the learning through laboratory work in science subjects and the heavy cost for the establishment and maintenance of laboratories. This research paper provides perspectives on these issues through a brief review of the history, goals and objectives related to the physics undergraduate laboratory. An empirical research study was conducted to determine the university students' perceptions, views and opinions with regard to physics learning during undergraduate laboratory work. This involved 143 students from first and higher years and the evidence was gathered by survey and focus group interviews, the former using a variety of types of questions. The evidence from the students is positive and suggests that undergraduate physics laboratory work may well be contributing towards the achievement of specific desirable goals.

Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

“…When students were asked if practical work helped them to understand physics topics, most of the students in both groups agreed or strongly agreed. The views of second-to third-year students were more positive than those of first-year students [37].…”

“…However, the item ''best part of physics'' was rejected by most of the students. On the other hand, second-to third-year students regarded practical work as more interesting and enjoyable than did first-year students [37]. When students were asked if practical work helped them to understand physics topics, most of the students in both groups agreed or strongly agreed.…”

“…Hanif et al [37] conducted a survey that aimed at investigating university students' perceptions, views, and opinions of physics learning. They focused on first-and second-to third-year students.…”

“…The students may not see practical work as an essential part of physics helping them in building up their scientific knowledge [34,36]. In particular, university-level practical work may be regarded simply as the technical performance of experiments [37] without necessarily making physics more interesting or enjoyable. Thus, it is important to take preservice teachers' previous experiences explicitly into account in teacher education programs.…”

“…In order to gather more authentic and unbiased data, we also avoided asking in the writing task about the specific objectives of practical work. It has been noted that pupils or students experience difficulty in talking about the objectives of practical work when questioned explicitly because they lack the necessary terminology [37,38], and hence we requested the students to write about practical work in physics teaching in general. We expected to obtain a wealth of data from the essays, where the research participants would in broad terms describe their experience of practical work.…”