Abstract:

In the context of European Higher Education Area, the adaptation of university degree involves an adjustment of the teacher’s methodologies. In these degrees, the practical subjects or experiences on the laboratory are as important as the theoretical ones. The teachers have to propose practical problems that encourage development of critical thinking and enrich the learning process. In our context, where the new study plan has been introduced at all, we have thought that it is the best time to evaluate how the laboratory practices are going. Hence, in order to make changes and improvements in the future, Science´s Faculty at Cadiz University has led a systematic process of evaluation and rethinking of laboratory practices implemented in the chemistry degree.

The purpose of this paper is to make an assessment of these laboratory practices, by analyzing the perceptions of students and teachers involved in them, as well the relationship between the views of both. For this, in order both teachers and students express their opinion regarding different dimensions of the several implemented laboratory practices, a Likert scale questionnaire has been developed. Several topics, such as practices design and execution, results, evaluation method or general impression owing to the knowledge gained, were covered in the inquiry. Student could fill out a form through an on-line web-site “Virtual Campus”. 309 students and 26 teachers responded to the questionnaire.

First, a descriptive study was conducted, both from the data of students and teachers from different subjects and courses at the Science Faculty at Cadiz University. Second, a comparative analysis was carried out in order to compare the view and opinion of both, teachers and students The results indicated that student´s opinion were more critical than teachers one, who had a more positive view. Nevertheless, a statistically significant correlation (r = .72, p = .0000) was detected between the perceptions of both samples, when overall questionnaire scores across different labs were compared. Students asked for a fluent dialog between them and teachers in order to point out what is going to be required during the practices and at the end of them. Besides, in this improvement context, the activities should be corrected faster to bring back to the students as fast as possible. Fundamentally both of them agreed in the inclusion of some components which reinforce the personal initiative in courses more advanced. From these results, several conclusions were adopted in order to improvements in the repertoire of practical laboratory work used.

Keywords:

Laboratory practice, innovation tools, education and research.