Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Life Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2013 Fall;12(3):460-70. doi: 10.1187/cbe.12-09-0168.
Laboratory education can play a vital role in developing a learner's autonomy and scientific inquiry skills. In an innovative, mutation-based learning (MBL) approach, students were instructed to redesign a teacher-designed standard experimental protocol by a "mutation" method in a molecular genetics laboratory course. Students could choose to delete, add, reverse, or replace certain steps of the standard protocol to explore questions of interest to them in a given experimental scenario. They wrote experimental proposals to address their rationales and hypotheses for the "mutations"; conducted experiments in parallel, according to both standard and mutated protocols; and then compared and analyzed results to write individual lab reports. Various autonomy-supportive measures were provided in the entire experimental process. Analyses of student work and feedback suggest that students using the MBL approach 1) spend more time discussing experiments, 2) use more scientific inquiry skills, and 3) find the increased autonomy afforded by MBL more enjoyable than do students following regimented instructions in a conventional "cookbook"-style laboratory. Furthermore, the MBL approach does not incur an obvious increase in labor and financial costs, which makes it feasible for easy adaptation and implementation in a large class.
实验室教育可以在培养学习者的自主性和科学探究技能方面发挥重要作用。在一种创新的基于突变的学习（MBL）方法中，学生被要求通过分子遗传学实验室课程中的“突变”方法重新设计教师设计的标准实验方案。学生可以选择删除、添加、反转或替换标准方案中的某些步骤，以在给定的实验场景中探索他们感兴趣的问题。他们撰写实验方案来解决他们对“突变”的理由和假设；根据标准和突变方案同时进行实验；然后比较和分析结果，撰写个人实验报告。在整个实验过程中提供了各种支持自主性的措施。对学生作业和反馈的分析表明，使用 MBL 方法的学生 1）花费更多时间讨论实验，2）使用更多科学探究技能，3）发现 MBL 提供的增加自主性比按照传统的“食谱”式实验室的规定指令更愉快。此外，MBL 方法不会明显增加劳动力和财务成本，因此在大班中很容易适应和实施。
