Students' motivation toward laboratory work in physiology teaching

Niels Bonderup Dohn; Angela Fago; Johannes Overgaard; Peter Teglberg Madsen; Hans Malte

doi:10.1152/advan.00029.2016

Students' motivation toward laboratory work in physiology teaching

Niels Bonderup Dohn, Angela Fago, Johannes Overgaard, Peter Teglberg Madsen, Hans Malte

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Abstract

The laboratory has been given a central role in physiology education, and teachers report that it is motivating for students to undertake experimental work on live animals or measuring physiological responses on the students themselves. Since motivation is a critical variable for academic learning and achievement, then we must concern ourselves with questions that examine how students engage in laboratory work and persist at such activities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how laboratory work influences student motivation in physiology. We administered the Lab Motivation Scale to assess our students' levels of interest, willingness to engage (effort), and confidence in understanding (self-efficacy). We also asked students about the role of laboratory work for their own learning and their experience in the physiology laboratory. Our results documented high levels of interest, effort, and self-efficacy among the students. Correlation analyses were performed on the three motivation scales and exam results, yet a significant correlation was only found between self-efficacy in laboratory work and academic performance at the final exam. However, almost all students reported that laboratory work was very important for learning difficult concepts and physiological processes (e.g., action potential), as the hands-on experiences gave a more concrete idea of the learning content and made the content easier to remember. These results have implications for classroom practice as biology students find laboratory exercises highly motivating, despite their different personal interests and subject preferences. This highlights the importance of not replacing laboratory work by other nonpractical approaches, for example, video demonstrations or computer simulations.

Original language	English
Journal	Advances in Physiology Education
Volume	40
Issue	3
Pages (from-to)	313-318
Number of pages	6
ISSN	1043-4046
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00029.2016
Publication status	Published - Sept 2016

Keywords

Interest
Laboratory work
Motivation
Self-determination theory
Self-efficacy

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10.1152/advan.00029.2016

Students' motivation toward laboratory work in physiology teaching_Postprint_2016Accepted manuscript, 424 KB

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title = "Students' motivation toward laboratory work in physiology teaching",

abstract = "The laboratory has been given a central role in physiology education, and teachers report that it is motivating for students to undertake experimental work on live animals or measuring physiological responses on the students themselves. Since motivation is a critical variable for academic learning and achievement, then we must concern ourselves with questions that examine how students engage in laboratory work and persist at such activities. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how laboratory work influences student motivation in physiology. We administered the Lab Motivation Scale to assess our students' levels of interest, willingness to engage (effort), and confidence in understanding (self-efficacy). We also asked students about the role of laboratory work for their own learning and their experience in the physiology laboratory. Our results documented high levels of interest, effort, and self-efficacy among the students. Correlation analyses were performed on the three motivation scales and exam results, yet a significant correlation was only found between self-efficacy in laboratory work and academic performance at the final exam. However, almost all students reported that laboratory work was very important for learning difficult concepts and physiological processes (e.g., action potential), as the hands-on experiences gave a more concrete idea of the learning content and made the content easier to remember. These results have implications for classroom practice as biology students find laboratory exercises highly motivating, despite their different personal interests and subject preferences. This highlights the importance of not replacing laboratory work by other nonpractical approaches, for example, video demonstrations or computer simulations.",

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Students' motivation toward laboratory work in physiology teaching

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