For students to successfully complete an experiment, they must have an understanding of measurement and its related uncertainty. We argue for teaching the concepts of measurement and not only the calculations. An example of a concepts-based laboratory course is given, outlining the concepts presented, the design of the laboratory time, and the laboratory tasks. The concepts are briefly described and two often-overlooked concepts, predictive versus descriptive questions and internal versus external variation, are explained. Our survey results show that the fraction of students using range and not just average when comparing two data sets approximately doubled after instruction.

Students’ attitudes and beliefs about learning have been shown to affect learning outcomes. This study explores how university physics students think about what it means to understand physics equations. The data comes from semi-structured interviews with students from three Swedish universities. The analysis follows a data-based, inductive approach to characterise students’ descriptions of what it means to understand equations in terms of epistemological mindsets (perceived critical attributes of a learning, application, or problem-solving situation that are grounded in epistemology). The results are given in terms of different components of students’ epistemological mindsets. Relations between individuals and sets of components as well as differences across various stages of students’ academic career are then explored. Pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed and tentative suggestions for university physics teaching are made.

This study investigates undergraduate students' ability to use the ideas of measurement and uncertainty to process and compare experimental data. These ideas include not only knowing what it means to use an instrument to take a measurement, but also being able to apply that knowledge, including the ideas that make up uncertainty analysis, to every aspect of an experiment. A physics laboratory course for the Energy Systems Engineering programme at Uppsala University has been designed to focus on teaching students the ideas of measurement and the associated laboratory skills. In the reported study, we use an open-ended survey to investigate students' ideas about data processing and data comparison before and after this laboratory course. The results show that several students, even after the course, are still unable to appropriately use the ideas of uncertainty. This suggests that these ideas must be continuously revisited and explored as a fundamental part of all undergraduate laboratory experiences. IntroductionData processing and data comparison principally involve the ideas of measurement and uncertainty. Measurement and its related uncertainty are at the very heart of empirical science, and as such are widely considered to be one of the most fundamental and important components of a student's science education (for example, Duggan & Gott, 2002;Welzel et al., 1998). Each phase of an experiment -the design, performance, analysis, and conclusion phases -requires that students know what it means to take a measurement and be able to apply this knowledge along with an understanding of the associated uncertainty. We propose that the underlying ideas for understanding uncertainty can be broadly categorized as follows: (Similar lists may be found in Deardorff, 2001, andFairbrother &Hackling, 1997.) • All measurements have an associated uncertainty, which can and should be quantified and reported.• A calculated result has an associated uncertainty based on the uncertainty carried in its dependent values.University students' ideas about data processing and data comparison in a physics laboratory course

In this study natural-in-action metacognitive activity during the student laboratory in university physics is explored, with an aim towards quantifying the amount of metacognition used by the students. The study investigates whether quantifying naturalin-action metacognition is possible and valuable for examining teaching and learning in these contexts. Video recordings of student groups working during three types of introductory physics laboratories were transcribed and then coded using a coding scheme developed from related research on mathematical problem solving. This scheme identifies a group's general behaviour and metacognitive activity. The study recognizes that reliably identifying metacognition is challenging, and steps are taken to improve reliability. Results suggest that a greater amount of metacognition does not appear to improve students' success in the laboratory-what appears to matter is whether the metacognition causes students to change behaviour. This study indicates that it is important to consider the outcome of metacognition, not just the amount.

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