Development and results from a survey on students views of experiments in lab classes and research

TL;DR

The paper introduces the E-CLASS survey, a validated assessment tool designed to evaluate undergraduate physics students' attitudes and perceptions about experiments, aligning lab practices with professional research skills.

Contribution

It presents the development, validation, and implementation of the E-CLASS survey for assessing student attitudes in physics lab courses.

Findings

E-CLASS effectively measures students' perceptions of experimental practices.

The survey provides detailed feedback reports for instructors.

E-CLASS is widely validated across all undergraduate physics levels.

Abstract

The Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) was developed as a broadly applicable assessment tool for undergraduate physics lab courses. At the beginning and end of the semester, the E-CLASS assesses students views about their strategies, habits of mind, and attitudes when doing experiments in lab classes. Students also reflect on how those same strategies, habits-of-mind, and attitudes are practiced by professional researchers. Finally, at the end of the semester, students reflect on how their own course valued those practices in terms of earning a good grade. In response to frequent calls to transform laboratory curricula to more closely align it with the skills and abilities needed for professional research, the E-CLASS is a tool to assess students' perceptions of the gap between classroom laboratory instruction and professional research. The E-CLASS has been validated and administered in all levels of undergraduate physics classes. To aid in its use as a formative assessment tool, E-CLASS provides all participating instructors with a detailed feedback report. Example figures and analysis from the report are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the E-CLASS. The E-CLASS is actively administered through an online interface and all interested instructors are invited to administer the E-CLASS their own classes and will be provided with a summary of results at the end of the semester.