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Laboratory apprenticeship through a student research project
Author(s) -
Ritchie Stephen M.,
Rigano Donna L.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2736(199609)33:7<799::aid-tea6>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - apprenticeship , mentorship , cognitive apprenticeship , psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , cognitive style , metaphor , variety (cybernetics) , science education , nature of science , educational research , cognition , medical education , computer science , medicine , philosophy , linguistics , neuroscience , artificial intelligence
There has been a long tradition of laboratory activities associated with science instruction. Despite constructivists' claims advocating open‐ended inquiry and mentoring, little is known about what students are thinking when engaged in laboratory activities. Laboratory learning as a process of cognitive apprenticeship has been proposed as a metaphor to guide teacher practice and student learning. The viability of cognitive apprenticeship for learning science in school is discussed in relation to findings from an investigation of a research project involving high school students working in a university chemical engineering laboratory under the mentorship of a university‐based scientist. Data from a variety of techniques were analyzed in an interpretive style. We found that the students were empowered to seek empirically viable knowledge claims as they became independent researchers. However, we argue that caution needs to be exercised before advocating open‐ended inquiry as a general model for laboratory learning without additional studies in different contexts. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.