We present the analysis and discussion of a type of laboratory practice (TPL) for university level. The new format attempts to enable the students, starting with a clear understanding of the TPL, to take decisions which lead them to do the proposed routine. This way we try to avoid students doing the TPL mechanically. The evaluation of the implemented TPL shows that the students are committed to the task and make the objective of the TPL their own, taking decisions during the laboratory sessions. This proposal seems to generate in the students feelings of assurance, compromise, playfulness and proactive participation. The proposed format allows the students to establish relations between the theory and the phenomena. They initially resort to their previous ideas and finally make the connection between the task and the theory and so establish relations which favor the learning of the discipline.
Science education; physics; laboratory practice; university level
