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Frontiers in Educational Research, 2024, 7(5); doi: 10.25236/FER.2024.070504.

Effective Practices of Enhancing Students' Safety Awareness in Teaching Laboratories in the New Era

Author(s)

Xu Hu, Jiajing Wan, Binyan Zheng, Haohan Ren, Jianmin Chen, Qicai Ying, Xuelian Bai

Corresponding Author:
Xuelian Bai
Affiliation(s)

College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China

Abstract

This study aims to improve the safety awareness of college students in teaching laboratories through the execution of a laboratory educational reform. Through the use of a two-way mentorship model, the experiment instructor provides safety instruction related to the experiment's subject matter before each class, and the laboratory teaching assistant gradually increases students' awareness of safety as the class moves forward. These approaches integrate traditional safety assessments (such as questionnaires and visual error identification exercises) with advanced techniques in the modern era (such as high-quality safety video tutorials, incorporation of MOOCs, and utilisation of immersive virtual simulation environments), all of which can be successfully applied in biochemistry instructional laboratories. The research findings demonstrated that implementing these particular procedures had a substantial impact on students' comprehension of laboratory safety standards and heightened their consciousness of laboratory safety. We have developed a user-friendly, multi-tiered dual-teacher teaching approach that has been of great help to the cultivation and enhancement of laboratory safety awareness among local higher education students. This method offers practical guidance for incorporating thorough safety education training into regular laboratory courses, thereby improving the safety awareness and practices of college students in teaching laboratories. It is anticipated that this approach will be readily embraced in various educational settings, resulting in substantial prevention of safety risks.

Keywords

Laboratory Educational Reform, Safety Awareness, Dual-teacher Leadership, Teaching Laboratories, Undergraduate Students

Cite This Paper

Xu Hu, Jiajing Wan, Binyan Zheng, Haohan Ren, Jianmin Chen, Qicai Ying, Xuelian Bai. Effective Practices of Enhancing Students' Safety Awareness in Teaching Laboratories in the New Era. Frontiers in Educational Research (2024) Vol. 7, Issue 5: 24-30. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2024.070504.

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