Student’s perception about mechanical stress and what is most important for learning during a practical task using digital interactive lab description.

Abstract

This study investigated student’s knowledge and understanding of mechanical stress including strain, and the relation between mechanical stress and strain, using material created by the authors of this text. It also investigated what the students perceived helpful for learning. The material was a complete laboratory setup and was intended to be simple and visual, including a digital part. During the studies in a Swedish upper secondary school, students enrolled in the technology programme took a general introductory course in solid mechanics. The students' participation in our study was composed of four classes. The study was implemented by answering a questionnaire prior to laboratory and a similar one after the laboratory, 85 out of 107 students answered both questionnaires. A thematic analysis was applied on the material, resulting in six thematic groups based on the students’ previous knowledge and how much they have learned from the laboratory. To find correlations between the thematic groups, classes, and what the students perceived important for learning, a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with multiple comparison post hoc test was performed. A significant difference between the class and the thematic groups was found (p<0.05). Another significant difference was found between the teacher and the class the students were in (p<0.001). This study showed that the teacher was important for the students’ perception of solid mechanics during this laboratory and that the interactive lab description played less roll. The teacher’s importance depended on what class the students were in.