What Can Be Learned from Laboratory Activities? Revisiting 32 Years of Research

This paper is a modification of the award address for the 2010 ACS Award for Achievement in Research for the Teaching and Learning of Chemistry. The address re-visited selected research from the last 32 years and focused on the general question, “What can be learned from laboratory activities?” Several issues were explored, including: what categories of learning are possible in laboratory; what different instructional strategies are used in laboratory instruction; what role laboratory plays in an overall instructional strategy; what outcomes of laboratory instruction are preferred by instructors; what characteristics of laboratory instruction do students identify; and what laboratory-based instructional strategies are most effective.