This paper describes the development, final design and validation of an instrument that measures a range of student interactions and satisfaction in undergraduate chemistry laboratories. Student surveys or conceptual and attitudinal instruments are widely used techniques for collecting relevant information on student learning. However, there is a lack of specific instruments for collecting data on the relationships between social factors and learning. Consequently, this study attempted to fill this gap by introducing an instrument—the Interactions in Undergraduate Laboratory Classes (IULC). The design of the IULC instrument is based on the theory of distributed cognition, meaning that knowledge is not rooted in an individual’s mind, but develops in the process of interacting with the environment. The instrument covers three aspects: (i) frequency of interactions, (ii) satisfaction and (iii) importance of interactions for the specific laboratory. Undergraduate students (N = 204) enrolled in a first-year chemistry course participated in a test case for the instrument and the corresponding data were analysed using different methods for each of the three parts. The factor structure of the data obtained from the first part of the instrument and internal consistency measures are discussed. Among findings captured by the instrument, student-teacher (instructors in the university context) interactions correlated positively with students’ satisfaction levels. Implications and suggestions for the use of the instrument are discussed.

本文描述了一种仪器的开发、最终设计和验证，该仪器可测量本科化学实验室中一系列学生的互动和满意度。学生调查或概念和态度工具是广泛使用的技术，用于收集有关学生学习的相关信息。然而，缺乏收集社会因素与学习之间关系数据的具体工具。因此，本研究试图通过引入一种工具——本科实验室课堂互动 (IULC) 来填补这一空白。IULC仪器的设计基于分布式认知理论，意味着知识不是植根于个人的头脑，而是在与环境互动的过程中发展起来的。该仪器包括三个方面：(i) 交互频率，(ii) 满意度和 (iii) 交互对特定实验室的重要性。未毕业的学生 （N  = 204) 参加了第一年化学课程的学生参加了仪器的测试用例，并且对三个部分中的每一个使用不同的方法分析了相应的数据。讨论了从仪器的第一部分获得的数据的因子结构和内部一致性度量。在该工具捕获的结果中，师生（大学环境中的教师）互动与学生的满意度呈正相关。讨论了使用该工具的意义和建议。