Laboratory Work Forms of

Authors: Avi Hofstein

Publish Date: 2014

Volume: , Issue: , Pages: 1-5

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Abstract

There is general agreement that the laboratory provides science students with unique learning experiences The laboratory utilizes manual and intellectual skills which are in some measure distinct from those used in nonlaboratory work A comprehensive review of the literature conducted by Lazarowitz and Tamir 1994 summarized the aims and objectives of laboratory work These authors suggested that laboratory work be structured under the following main headings understanding of concepts acquiring habits and capacities gaining practical skills including planning and design of a practical exercise performance organization analysis and interpretation of data and application to new situations appreciating the nature of science and developing attitudes Whether these aims and objectives are attained and the form of laboratory work conducted depends very much on teachers’ instructional goals and whether students are provided with genuine opportunities to be involved in laboratory experiences In addition the attainment of these objectives is monitored and regulated by the context in which the laboratory exercise is taking place by the students’ characteristics abilities and motivational patterns and by the laboratory manual guide which very often dictates the type and form of activity that will be conducted eg inquirytype activities as opposed to confirmatorytype experiments the degree of openendedness of an activity and whether the experiment will be conducted by the students individually or in collaborative groups or presented as a teacher’s demonstration Also often the form of laboratory work and the type of activities conducted are based on logistical constraints such as the availability of equipment and materials and the length of the activityThe advantage of demonstrations is that the teacher is in control and so able to explain the dynamics and purpose of the experiment in a stepbystep fashion In addition the teacher can focus students’ attentions toward particular aspects of their observations When compared to studentled experiments demonstrations are lower in cost more economical of time and equipment less hazardous generally safer and more ordered in terms of directing thinking processes The way the demonstration is conducted is related to the goals of the experiments and to the type of skills to be developed For example if the goal is to develop students’ abilities to observe there may be an advantage to using larger and more accurate demonstration equipment rather than the smallscale equipment available for students’ own experimentationsStudents’ laboratory activities can be classified into four types confirmatory inquiry discovery and problembased Domin 1998 suggested that experiments can be classified according to the type of results obtained from the activity the approach to the activity inductive or deductive who wrote the activity teacher or students and who performed the activity Other researchers Herron 1971 Pella 1961 suggested categorizing experiments according to their degrees of openendedness “Open” in this sense means that the experiment is performed entirely by the student and “closed” means that it is directed entirely by the teacher A confirmatory experiment is considered closed when the students perform an experiment that is planned by the teacher This confirmatory approach is deductive and the results of the activity are known beforehand to both the teacher and the students By contrast an inquiry experiment is considered open when the students plan how it will be carried out This approach is inductive and the results are not known in advance by the students and in some rare cases not even by the teacher

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