Failing Grade for High School Labs

A new report on high school science labs puts it bluntly: “The quality of current laboratory experiences is poor for most students.” Published by the National Research Council (NRC), the report blames the ineffectual nature of most lab instruction on such factors as inadequate facilities, lack of teacher motivation, pressure from state standards to cover too many topics, and a disconnect with the subject matter being taught in the classroom.

What’s to be done? David P. Licata, a member of the committee that prepared the report, advises teachers to stay away from cookbook-type labs that direct students step by step through a series of lab experiences. Licata, who teaches chemistry at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, Calif., recommends that teachers instead encourage students to use their own developing scientific skills to decide how to approach a problem in the lab.

“At the same time as we’re teaching chemistry content we’re also trying to help students learn how to think about the nature of science,” he says. “Students not only need to know content, but we hope that they will understand what science is and how science is done.”

The report also recommends better integration of lab experiences with lectures, reading, and discussion, as well as more thorough preparation of instructors so that they can take on these added responsibilities.

The path that reform should take, however, is obscured by the paucity of data about the effectiveness of alternative approaches to lab instruction, according to the committee members. They suggest that educators devise methods to evaluate learning outcomes so that they can find out for sure which approaches work best.

The NRC study—“America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science”—is available online at books.nap.edu/catalog/11311.html or by calling (202) 334-3313 or (800) 624-6242.