I vilka syften genomför lärare laborationer i biologi? En studie utifrån hel- och halvklasslaborationer i undervisningen

Abstract

Labs form part of the curriculum for the biology subject in grades 7 to 9 at upper secondary school and are an important element of biology teaching. The previous research that I have examined in connection with the study shows that teachers carry out laboratories for several different purposes. The students should have the opportunity to connect theory and practice, arouse interest in scientific subjects and working methods, etc. There are studies that show that a large part of the students want to learn by having practical work in the scientific subjects. This study intends to investigate the purposes for which teachers carry out laboratory work in biology and what conditions teachers have for carrying out laboratory work in whole or half a class. For the study, I have interviewed five teachers who all work as biology teachers in junior high school. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner and the data was analyzed with the inspiration of qualitative content analysis. The results show that the teachers have multiple purposes with their laboratories. The teachers' prerequisites for laboratories also varied from school to school. Primarily, the extent to which the teachers had the opportunity for full- or half-class laboratories was investigated. It was clear that the teachers wish to carry out the laboratories in half classes and that these are scheduled. There were teachers in the study who created their own half-classes during laboratory time by doing the laboratory with one half and letting the other half work on something theoretical. The governing documents from the Swedish Education Agency leave room for interpretation as to how often or which laboratories should be carried out at school. Since the spring of 2023, the National Board of Education has removed the practical part of the national tests in the nature-oriented subjects. Therefore, the question is asked how it might affect laboratory teaching at a time when money is to be saved at the school.