Thursday ,
April 18, 2012
Introduction:
The second shadowing session at the
Metropolia University of Applied Science in an physic lab course. It was at
4:30 PM in the 18th of April 2012. Mr. Max Poppius was the professor of the
class. It was a typical lab classroom where there are some tables and many of
physics tools. Also there were some computers loaded with programs to be used
in the lab experiments. It was a general lab which does not have
specific field. We didn't have enough time to meet the teacher before the
session started. Most of the students didn't come to the class on time. After
30 minutes, most of the students were on the class. The teacher was very
friendly, cooperative, and helpful. There were 4 groups. Each group has 3 members.
The students have known the method that's teacher has separated them. Because
the lab doesn't have enough equipment, there were 2 different experiments in
that day. The methodology of teaching is the social and situational. He was
gaudiness and helper for them when he feels the group want some help. The
instruction of experiment and some important information are in the computer(
in their account). Sometimes, they submit the their reports by e-mailing their teacher as
group, another by real papers. He assess them by : observing them individually , and by their report as
group.
I'll give you a little bit of background to make it easier for you to understand the role of lab classes in Metropolia curriculum.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally (before UAS was implemented) we used to have three kinds of teachers in technical colleges here in Finland.
- theory teachers with masters or Phd depending on the subject (for "pure" physics as a core subject one had to have Phd, but for applied physics integrated to the students vocation a masters degree was enough)
- "exercises teachers" who supervised the sessions where calculations take place, mostly masters degree
- lab teachers who supervised work in labs and also maintained the equipment, engineering degree from a technical collage
When the system of UAS was implemented from the beginning of 1990 on, these traditional boundaries didn't automatically disappear! Many think that even today the separation between theory and practice exists although there are no real grounds for it. A tradition dies slowly!
If you compare the first session and this physics lab course, you can see that the first one has attempted to dissolve the separation: the students work on their projects and the teacher gives short lecture showers, whereas in physics labs are a truly separate block from physics theory! Even more so now that they don't even have labs included in each physics course, but only this one separate lab course!
How is it organized in your school? Do you have separate theory classes and practical application classes? Or do you blend them together? Which one do you personally prefer and why?
Do you see any benefits in regard to learning in this arrangement where labs are fully separated from the respective theory course?
What about any minuses in this arrangement?
- Irmeli