Research based Pedagogical Protocols for Laboratory Courses

Current curricula in most academic institutes in India train the students in information gathering for most time and honing of theoretical knowledge at best. The emphasis on skill development and its use towards acquiring holistic knowledge has been waning over the last few decades. The well-documented ill of emphasis on marks as opposed to learning is mostly responsible for this state of affairs. The inability to implement new ideas in the laboratories is of deep concern in a field like Physics, which in its essence is an experimental science. A three-pronged approach is being tried out at the Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUTN) in the department of Physics to address the issue, namely (a) a vertical integration of concepts taught in Physics from the 1st to 5th year of the Integrated Masters (IMSc) program (b) gradual transition from instructional laboratories in the first year to research based laboratory in the last teaching laboratory followed by (c) a research based project. In this paper, we will discuss the pedagogical protocol developed and implemented in the Integrated Mater of Science (IMSc) (Physics) program and the results it has yielded in the form of better-prepared students.