Future of Teaching Laboratories
Future of Teaching Laboratories
Joanne Brown - Food Science
Project overview
Teaching Laboratory spaces form an essential component within many STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) study programs. They enable students to gain invaluable hands on experience and practical applications of theories they have been taught. With a new digital age upon us, it is important to investigate the impact of these ‘new’ pedagogies and how this influences the way we use the laboratory teaching spaces.
During this fellowship, I would like to investigate different digital practices employed across University Teaching Laboratories and the possibilities these present to create better collaboration within these spaces.
The research approach
My research would be split into 3 sections:
1. Investigating digital tools/pedagogies used across the University of Leeds Teaching Laboratories;
2. Investigate best use of space by understanding how staff individually and/or collaboratively use the space and explore both enablers and barriers they may face. This would also extend to looking at other Universities and investigating how they have re-configured their teaching laboratory spaces in order to collect evidence of best practices;
3. Collect input from both staff and students on their views of collaborative teaching space or other best practices that might stem from this research.
SWOT Analysis: Initial SWOT analysis on current taught laboratory set ups based on the student and staff survey data. Although the analysis provides a general understanding of experiences from different perspectives, one of the main challenges is the significant variation in laboratory organisation and management across the University. This leads to differences in detail and complexity, making it difficult to standardise findings.
If you want to find out more details about this fellowship or what the next steps were upon completion please read the full snapshot or contact Joanne Brown
Project start date: September 2023