Lärares mål med laborativt arbete: Utveckla förståelse och intresse

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse secondary school teachers’ goals for laboratory work. What general goals do teachers have for labwork and what goals appear when teachers describe real labwork used in their own teaching? What goals are expressed in the written laboratory instructions? Eleven science teachers in secondary school participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The teachers’ laboratory instruction sheets were analysed with respect to intended learning outcome. The analysis of teachers’ general goals showed five themes and that cognitive aspects were the most prominent. Furthermore, when teachers talked about specific labwork used in their own teaching affective aspects were more important and an additional theme appeared. It was also shown that laboratory instructions supported teachers’ goals to develop students understanding of concepts and phenomena. However, goals concerning to think and reflect upon labwork were not supported by the laboratory instructions.