Combining Cooperative Learning with Inquiry-Based Laboratory Classes in Engineering Education

Introductory laboratory classes for engineering students often tend to be rather monotonous classes with strictly predefined tasks to solve. Instruction-based verification experiments invite the students to be passive learners, conducting the laboratory classes without much reflection. One strategy to encourage the students to active thinking is to replace the instruction-based teaching with inquiry-centered sessions focusing on context-rich problems. Student participation can be further promoted by explicitly introducing cooperative learning components in the education. In this paper, we present an approach combining inquiry-based teaching using context-rich problems with cooperative learning methods in an introductory laboratory class in physics for mechanical engineering students. The current study focuses on describing the teaching framework of the implemented approach, including mastering of occurring difficulties. In addition, findings from the first in-class usage are discussed.