Increasing student engagement in the laboratory: Using Turner and Paris’ six Cs as scaffold for analyzing and improving general basic laboratory courses in natural science

Abstract

Lack of motivation and engagement during lab courses may influence students’ learning quality. This work describes the typical setting of general basic natural science-oriented lab courses and observed problems related to student motivation and engagement. Various alternative approaches and methods that can be implemented in parallel to the current curriculum are discussed. The focus is on student motivation using the Turner and Paris’ six Cs motivational model as the scaffold and the impact that these new methods could have in student motivation. Many approaches for increasing students' motivation during lab courses are presented in literature, and they could be selected and implemented to suit specific situations.