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Title: Consequential agency in chemical engineering laboratory courses
In contrast to the dynamic treatment of other aspects of the curriculum, and despite being at the center of chemical engineering education, laboratory experiments have remained largely unchanged for decades. To characterize the potential impact changes to laboratory courses could have, we explored student perceptions across a department and characterized the kinds of opportunities students have to use their agency in these courses across universities. We used a survey to measure students’ sense of agency across several laboratory courses in a chemical engineering department. We found students in laboratory courses across the chemical engineering laboratory sequence, including those engaged in authentic course-based research did not perceive the experiments as agentive or authentic. We infer students draw upon abundant low-agency experiences in laboratory experiments. We report on the agency that instructors report students possessing across two chemical engineering departments to understand variation across institutions. Maximizing learning in laboratory courses may hinge on clearer communication about authentic experiments or systematic redesign of earlier courses.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1751369 1623105
NSF-PAR ID:
10385864
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exhibition
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1-16
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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