ABSTRACT
This quotation firmly places laboratory work at the core of science teaching, yet the teaching approaches to undergraduate laboratories often fail to convey the right messages or excite the students, thus wasting a valuable learning environment. When students do not even accept that they should understand purpose in laboratory work (Gunstone, 1991) it is time for serious reflection, because the way in which students respond to learning in the laboratory context depends, to some extent, on their perception of its purpose. This aspect, some-
times referred to as the “hidden curriculum” (Snyder, 1971), is often overlooked by laboratory course designers, who tend to see a laboratory session in the context of what they planned rather than what is actually happening (Wilkinson and Ward, 1997).
