Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content

Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encom...

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Published inPhysical review. Physics education research Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 010129 - 10140
Main Authors Holmes, N. G., Olsen, Jack, Thomas, James L., Wieman, Carl E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published College Park American Physical Society 30.05.2017
Subjects
Achievement Gains
College Science
College Students
Comparative Testing
Control Groups
Course Content
Course Evaluation
Curriculum Enrichment
Education
Educational Benefits
Educational Objectives
Exit Examinations
Experimental Groups
Introductory Courses
Outcomes of Education
Program Effectiveness
Science Laboratories
Scores
Statistical Analysis
Student Records
Students
Teaching Methods
Value Added Models
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Summary:Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content presented in lectures, and the labs were optional. By comparing the performance of students who did and did not take the labs (with careful normalization for selection effects), we found universally and precisely no added value to learning course content from taking the labs as measured by course exam performance. This work should motivate institutions and departments to reexamine the goals and conduct of their lab courses, given their resource-intensive nature.We show why these results make sense when looking at the comparative mental processes of students involved in research and instructional labs, and offer alternative goals and instructional approaches that would make lab courses more educationally valuable.
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ISSN:2469-9896
2469-9896
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.13.010129