Student’s Perception About Mechanical Stress and Learning in a Digital Interactive Lab Task

Q: What does the study investigate about mechanical stress?

The study investigates students’ knowledge and understanding of mechanical stress, including strain, and how mechanical stress relates to strain.

Q: How was the learning material delivered in the laboratory?

Students used a complete laboratory setup created by the authors, designed to be simple and visual, with a digital component.

Q: What factors were found to influence students’ perceptions during the lab?

Results show significant differences related to class and the teacher’s role, while the interactive lab description played a lesser role; teacher importance depended on the students’ class.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

This study examines students’ knowledge and understanding of mechanical stress, including strain, and the relationship between mechanical stress and strain using an author-created digital interactive laboratory setup. Conducted in Swedish upper secondary technology classes, the intervention followed an introductory solid mechanics course and involved four classes. Students completed questionnaires before and after the lab, and results from 85 of 107 participants were analyzed with thematic analysis and one-way ANOVA with post hoc tests. Findings indicate significant class- and teacher-related differences, showing the teacher’s role as central while the interactive lab description contributed less.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Didactical model and teaching approaches

Role of the teacher in student learning

Digital interactive learning

Experimental work and interactions in learning

Student’s perception about mechanical stress and what is most important for learning during a practical task using digital interactive lab description Caroline Forsell, Bromma gymnasium, Stockholms stad and KTH Royal Institution of Technology, Stockholm Per Westerlind, Kunskapsgymnasiet, Göteborg Abstract This study investigated student’s knowledge and understanding of mechanical stress including strain, and the relation between mechanical stress and strain, using material created by the authors of this text. It also investigated what the students perceived helpful for learning. The material was a complete laboratory setup and was intended to be simple and visual, including a digital part. During the studies in a Swedish upper secondary school, students enrolled in the technology programme took a general introductory course in solid mechanics. The students'participation in our study was composed of four classes. The study was implemented by answering a questionnaire prior to laboratory and a similar one after the laboratory, 85 out of 107 students answered both questionnaires. A thematic analysis was applied on the material, resulting in six thematic groups based on the students’ previous knowledge and how much they have learned from the laboratory. To find correlations between the thematic groups, classes, and what the students perceived important for learning, a One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with multiple comparison post hoc test was performed. A significant difference between the class and the thematic groups was found (p<0 .05) . Another significant difference was found between the teacher and the class the students were in (p<0 .001) . This study showed that the teacher was important for the students’ perception of solid mechanics during this laboratory and that the interactive lab description played less roll. The teacher’s importance depended on what class the students were in. Keywords Technology, solid mechanics, practical task, interactive links, learning, teacher Introduction A didactical model may be used to explain and reason about the different teaching approaches that a teacher may conduct. The teaching approach depends on the context that is to be taught (Wickman et al., 2018) . This is also discussed by Hattie (2003) . The didactical model should not only be used when planning and conducting a single learning activity, but also in its evaluation (Jank & Meyer, 2003) . The didactical model used in the laboratory was to keep equipment simple to use and visual in nature. (Hattaja et al., 2019) . Follow the development of Quality 5.0 and their excellence model (SIQ, 2022) the success of an organisation requires motivated teachers and the relation between the student and teacher is important. Technical solutions are often a compromise of many properties; as an example between choice of manufacturing method, chosen material, weight and solid mechanics calculations. Teaching technology in upper secondary school in Sweden is an activity of great complexity and the important role the teacher has for student learning is well established. The interest for the importance of the teacher during student learning has also been interest over a long time (eg. Darling-Hammond, 1996) . The teacher´s role may concern, for example, relational aspects where a good teacher-student relationship is fundamental for student´s learning. Students describe, when describing a good teacher, a teacher that shares the responsibility of learning together with them and that the teacher know them not only as a learner. The teacher’s knowledge of the taught subject is described as less important than both passion for teaching or the subject itself. A good teacher cares about the students’ self-esteem and their confidence (Hirsch, 2021) . Furthermore, the teacher’s attitude towards the subject is also of importance as previous studies have shown that teachers are usually reluctant to teach subjects, they have little or no

FAQs

What does the study investigate about mechanical stress?

The study investigates students’ knowledge and understanding of mechanical stress, including strain, and how mechanical stress relates to strain.

How was the learning material delivered in the laboratory?

Students used a complete laboratory setup created by the authors, designed to be simple and visual, with a digital component.

What factors were found to influence students’ perceptions during the lab?

Results show significant differences related to class and the teacher’s role, while the interactive lab description played a lesser role; teacher importance depended on the students’ class.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo