Digital learning environments such as virtual laboratories have been proposed to augment or even replace conventional forms of teaching in recent years. While there is some evidence on comparable learning outcomes between real and virtual labs, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of virtual labs as compared to conventional face-to-face…

Experimental skills should be acquired by learners at school and university alike. To promote experimental skills, various approaches exist within a spectrum between implicit and explicit instruction. Regarding these instructional approaches, numerous findings are available which predominantly relate to pupils. It is an open question whether it is…

In this paper, we present the design and the results of a comparative study that evaluated the success of a transfer of an online-teaching resource between two universities, one in Germany and one in the USA. The teaching resource is an online physics lab that has been used in the physics education of medical students in Germany since 2003. The…

Given the rapid development of modern biotechnology, attention to socioscientific issues in educational contexts is crucially important to support students in becoming responsible citizens. The authors' research focused on the impact of discussing socioscientific issues during biology lessons under 3 different treatments (teacher guided, student…

Dissections of human organs and animals are an important part of medical and science education but students usually express negative emotions towards dissections. Some studies show a negative influence of disgust and anxiety on motivation, interest and achievement. Therefore, reducing anxiety and disgust should be an important aim. As humor can…

The learning outcome of a physics laboratory course for medical students was examined in an interdisciplinary field study and discussed for the electrical physiology ("Propagation of Excitation and Nerve Cells"). At the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (LMU) at a time about 300 medicine students were assessed in two successive…