Confidence and critical awareness as factors in the development of experimentation skills in laboratory courses

Major surveys of the objectives of laboratory courses which aim to develop experimental skills have identified the objectives of critical awareness and developing confidence as central concerns in course design. This study reports the outcomes of a course in experimental engineering at the University of New South Wales with respect to the achievement of these two objectives. Findings indicate that for a significant number of students the objective of developing confidence was not achieved. Further, the approaches employed to develop critical awareness often came into conflict with the objective of developing confidence.A review of these results, together with other studies, indicated that insufficient attention has been given to the successful articulation of these two objectives within course design. The article concludes with a set of recommendations for meeting the objective of developing confidence in conducting experimentation whilst maintaining requirements which necessitate the exercise of students' critical faculties in resolving methodological problems in experimentation.