Application Of The Inquiry Teaching To College Physics Laboratory Courses

In this work, the application of the inquiry teaching to college physics laboratory courses was investigated through the use of empirical research. The content includes:the background and significance of the work; an overview of the inquiry teaching; the application of the mode to college physics laboratory courses and the discussion. The study is based on literature research, experiments, case studies as well as investigation method.With an overview of current advances of inquiry teaching in both domestic and oversea universities, we pursued a study on applying the mode to college physics laboratory instructions. The key elements are:raising questions, forecasting the factors involved, experiment design, determination of experimental procedures, validation and evaluation, cooperation and communication. These elements were completed in three stages:before class, during class and after class. It was found that the application of inquiry teaching to post-secondary education showed advantages compared to high school education. All the 5 treatment groups completed the prelab design before the class. The group members cooperated well during the class with good communications and they completed the lab reports or the project thesis on time after class. Based on the statistics analysis of the experimental data as well as student interviews during one academic year, it was found that the students' interest on physics lab as well as the lab grade were improved through the application of inquiry teaching to college physics laboratory courses. The scientific literacy of the students and their capability of creative thinking were also improved. There is an urgent need on applying inquiry teaching to college physics laboratory courses.The proposed work includes 6 sections:Introduction chapter, the background of the inquiry teaching was depicted.Taking the analysis of the history and present situation of experimental teaching reform of the college physics as the point of departure,the part presents causes, singnificanse,and the trians of thought and methods of research. Both"have experiment no explore"and"have teaching no inquiry" was dissacted.Chapter 1, theoretical background. The concepts of inquiry, inquiry teaching mode and inquiry teaching in college physics laboratory courses were defined. The theory on inquiry teaching mode was overviewed and compared with the conventional teaching mode. The key elements in the instruction of college physics laboratory were proposed and analyzed.Chapter 2, Design and implementation of the study. Eighty third year subjects from Shanghai University of Engineering Science were assigned to one of the two treatment groups. Each of the treatment group received lab instruction in either the inquiry teaching mode or conventional mode. The instructional period lasted for an academic year and the results were evaluated with the scores from college physics laboratory contests, student oral defense, student skills of developing creative experiments, and scientific literacy of the students. Questionnaire for the students was also designed.Chapter 3, Results. From the study and the later investigations on the students, it was found that the students' interest on physics lab as well as the lab grade were improved through the application of inquiry teaching mode to college physics laboratory courses. The scientific literacy of the students and their capability of creative thinking were also enhanced.Chapter 4, Discussion. The results of the study are discussed. The inquiry teaching mode showed advantages in college physics laboratory courses. However, the workload on professors is much higher. The balance of workload between teaching and the scientific research has to be considered.Conclusion section. Though the inquiry teaching mode has been applied successfully to the college physics laboratory courses, not all of the lab courses fit into this mode. The instructors have to explore a practical mode themselves based on the knowledge of the students and the course content.