Students' Representations of Scientific Practice during a Science Internship: Reflections from an Activity-Theoretic Perspective

Autor/inn/en	Hsu, Pei-Ling; van Eijck, Michiel; Roth, Wolff-Michael
Titel	Students' Representations of Scientific Practice during a Science Internship: Reflections from an Activity-Theoretic Perspective
Quelle	In: International Journal of Science Education, 32 (2010) 9, S.1243-1266 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0950-0693
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Science Instruction; Job Shadowing; Informal Education; Scientific Principles; Qualitative Research; Science Activities; Internship Programs; Grade 11; High School Students; Ethnography; Data; Laboratories; Student Attitudes; Canada + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Informelle Bildung; Nichtformale Bildung; Qualitative Forschung; Berufspraktische Ausbildung; School year 11; 11. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 11; High school; High schools; Student; Students; Oberschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Ethnografie; Daten; Laboratory; Laboratorium; Schülerverhalten; Kanada
Abstract	Working at scientists' elbows is one suggestion that educators make to improve science education, because such "authentic experiences" provide students with various types of science knowledge. However, there is an ongoing debate in the literature about the assumption that authentic science activities can enhance students' understandings of scientific practice. The purpose of the study is to further address the debate in terms of the ethnographic data collected during an internship programme for high school students right through to their public presentations at the end. Drawing on activity theory to analyse these presentations, we found that students presented scientific practice as accomplished by individual personnel without collaboration in the laboratory. However, our ethnographic data of their internship interaction show that students have had conversations about the complex collaborations within and outside the laboratory. This phenomenon leads us to claim that students experienced authentic science in their internships, but their subsequent "representations" of authentic science are incomplete. That is, participating in authentic science internships and reporting scientific practice are embedded activities that constitute different goals and conditions rather than unrefracted reflections of one another. The debate on the influence on students' understanding of science practice is not simply related to situating students in authentic science contexts, but also related to students' values and ideology of reporting their understanding of and about science. To help students see these "invisible" moments of science practice is therefore crucial. We make suggestions for how the invisible in and of authentic science may be made visible. (Contains 1 note, 3 tables, and 1 figure.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10