Students' attitudes about experimental physics at the University of Padua: a ground for innovation

The latest developments of Physics Education Research challenge the view that laboratory courses aimed at reinforcing physics content actually achieve this goal. Being structured in a rigid way, they miss the opportunity to engage the students in the scientific practices taking place in a research laboratory. A more modern approach, where the students' agency is cultivated, fosters a greater improvement in their epistemology and attitudes towards experimental physics. The following thesis aims to reveal what the current state of physics laboratories at the University of Padova is, to understand the students' views about experimental physics and to collocate them in the broader international context.