They appreciate gaining hands-on experience and learning a process. Instead, students feel that part of the learning process is also understanding why certain results might not be obtained. Students reported two primary frustrations during the execution of a lab exercise. The panelists commonly experienced situations where there was a lack of equipment or too many students in a section given the available equipment. Second, they feel that working in large lab groups is a hindrance to learning.
Students prefer to work in pairs.
In many lab courses, grades are based largely on post-lab reports. However, our panelists reported that in most of their lab courses, they were not formally taught how to write a lab report nor were the teacher s expectations made explicit. Most learned by trial and error what was expected. Students are concerned about variation in grading across multiple sections of the same lab course. Our panelists made a number of suggestions with regard to these issues.