Pharmacy students’ conceptions of theory–practice relation in the analytical chemistry laboratory – a phenomenographic study†

In the undergraduate student laboratory teaching, one of the most common goals is developing improved conceptual understanding linking theory and practice. This study presents a phenomenographic analysis of pharmacy students’ conceptions of the theory–practice relation in the laboratory. Through semi-structured interviews with pharmacy students about laboratory teaching and learning, we find that the students conceive the laboratory experience of the theory–practice relation in three qualitatively different ways. They perceive the laboratory experience as either (i) a visual representation of the theory, (ii) acting in a multimodal setting supporting theory, or (iii) as a complementary perspective in understanding theory. Furthermore, the conceptions were context-dependent and changed over time. We discuss how these three different perspectives may affect the students’ learning outcomes and suggest how teachers can accommodate the perspectives in their teaching.