Involving the Engineering Students in Laboratory Work Through the Method of Experiment to Improve Academic Performance

Abstract

Introduction. The relevance of the study of the indicated topic lies in the insufficient study of the influence of means and methods used in laboratory classes on the performance of engineering students. The problem of improving academic performance is closely related to the motivation of learning and students’ involvement in the work in the classroom. The discipline “Materials Science” is a basic discipline for the majority of engineering disciplines and allows to introduce the method of experimentation into laboratory classes to increase the involvement and, as a consequence, the performance of students of the specialities under consideration.Objective. Studying the relationship between student involvement in experimental work during classes and the level of mastering the educational program.Materials and methods. The author’s tasks in test form were used as methodological tools to assess the level of mastering the studied material. The methods of mathematical statistics were used to process the obtained data and to determine the level of learning achievement.Results. The sample consisted of 66 students from five engineering majors at Don State Technical. It has been found that the use of a demonstration experiment conducted by the teacher with explanations and visual aids during the laboratory practice has virtually no impact on the mastery of the topic. However, involving students in the stages of laboratory work leads to a statistically significant improvement in the level of mastering the subject and overall academic performance.Discussion. The developed methodology of laboratory works in the discipline “Materials Science” provides students’ involvement in the learning process and combines the practice-oriented approach with small group work. The student realizes the significance of their actions for achieving high quality of the overall result of the experiment, which leads to improved performance and supports intrinsic motivation to study the discipline. Students had the opportunity to be creative in performing the task and were given some autonomy in carrying out the experiment. It was found that when conducting laboratory works, the combination of pedagogical and andragogical approaches leads to better results than the pedagogical approach.