Engineering Students' Evolving Perceptions of Practical Experience in Two Materials Science Courses

Laboratories are a common component of undergraduate engineering education. These practical experiences are often intended by educators to be a key moment in skills development and can be a significant financial investment by academic institutions. Students’ engagement and their perceptions of the learning environment have an influence on their academic success, making it desirable to understand how students’ perceptions of their laboratories change during a course. This study seeks to answer the question, “How do students’ perceptions of their laboratory environments change over a semester, and how do these changes vary across two institutional contexts?” Primarily qualitative survey data was collected from the University of Calgary in Canada and the EPFL in Switzerland. Results indicate that students’ conceptual understanding of laboratory activities is strongly shaped by prior introduction of conceptual materials, particularly through lectures. Additionally, student accounts suggested that formal laboratory assessments benefited their self-evaluation of conceptual understanding. These findings offer considerations in how engineering educators develop laboratory scheduling and assessment structures.