The European Journal of Social & Behavioural Sciences
Online ISSN: 2301-2218
European Publisher
The Experience of Laboratory Learning – How Do Chemistry Students Perceive Their Learning Environment?
Table 1: Categories and dimensions found for student experiences of their learning environment.
| Category | Dimensions | Example |
| Promoting/hindering factors in the LE | Safe social learning atmospherepeer discussionsasking assistant teachers | At least for me being able to confirm my own assumptions and hunches [through discussion] is a good way to learn, or actually, one of the best ways to learn. And it enhances also your courage and self-esteem there in the laboratory. You get more confident. |
| Need for guidance/scaffolding | Physically & socially distributed intelligence and scaffoldingfit/misfit between required and provided guidance (social and physical) | Generally I’ve noticed that the examples and explanations should be clear and relevant and not like, swinging your hands in the air, like “throw a nice amount of water in there”, and “then please heat it in a suitable temperature for a nice amount of time,”Like in the future, you’ll probably be in an Orion laboratory and most probably there’s no-one telling you ”do this do this” |
| Safety | Social scaffolding | It is, though, better to ask than to realize that the whole place smells like bitter almond [i.e., cyanide]… whether we should evacuate ourselves… |
| Physical scaffolding | I think like that safety would be the important thing and like a clear instruction in the environment, for example where are the disposal containers and that they would be labelled well and clearly |