Beck, S. orcid.org/0000-0001-5986-862X, Lazari, P. orcid.org/0009-0009-7169-4218 and DiBenedetti, M. orcid.org/0000-0001-7870-1323 (2024) Why do engineering students attend labs? SEFI Journal of Engineering Education Advancement, 1 (1). pp. 26-37. ISSN 3006-6301
Abstract
There is often poor attendance at timetabled laboratory sessions. Previous research into why university students attend lectures report major disincentives are: being ill, the lectures not being interesting and not examinable. However, there has been no work on student drivers to attend laboratories. The aim of this work was to find out why students do or do not attend labs, what their preferred duration and group size was.
The authors sent a questionnaire to students and staff in their Faculty of Engineering to find out what the drivers were for attendance and non attendance. Questions were also asked about lab duration and group size. 184 students and 43 staff questionnaires were returned.
It was found that the main reasons that students do not attend labs were similar to that stated in the literature for lectures. Students like small groups for their labs, but not groups of 3. They also prefer a larger number of shorter labs experiments rather than a smaller number of longer ones
Staff can encourage students to attend labs using the reasons that students believe them to be important. This work will aid teachers to incentivise students to attend their practical sessions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The author(s). This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Laboratory teaching; Student Attendance; Group size |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Mechanical Engineering (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Aug 2024 13:47 |
Last Modified: | 28 Aug 2024 13:47 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SEFI - European Society for Engineering Education |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.62492/sefijeea.v1i1.17 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:216521 |