Just do it? impact of a science apprenticeship program on high school students' understandings of the nature of science and scientific inquiry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explicate the impact of an 8-week science apprenticeship program on a group of high-ability secondary students' understandings of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. Ten volunteers (Grades 10-11) completed a modified version of the Views of Nature of Science, Form B both before and after their apprenticeship to assess their conceptions of key aspects of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. Semistructured exit interviews provided an opportunity for students to describe the nature of their apprenticeship experiences and elaborate on their written questionnaire responses. Semistructured exit interviews were also conducted with the scientists who served as mentors for each of the science apprentices. For the most part, students held conceptions about the nature of science and scientific inquiry that were inconsistent with those described in current reforms. Participating science mentors held strong convictions that their apprentices had learned much about the scientific enterprise in the course of doing the science in their apprenticeship. Although most students did appear to gain knowledge about the processes of scientific inquiry, their conceptions about key aspects of the nature of science remained virtually unchanged. Epistemic demand and reflection appeared to be crucial components in the single case where a participant experienced substantial gains in her understandings of the nature of science and inquiry. ß

Inquiry, instrumentalism, and the public understanding of science

“…In these treatments, science is commonly described in universalist terms, as an enterprise that has the ability to produce reliable, objective knowledge about the natural world through the rigorous application of its methods (see, for example, Holt Science and Technology, 2001;Spaulding & Namowitz, 2003;and Wysession, Frank, & Yancopoulos, 2004). This view of science as the search for durable knowledge is consistent with the characterizations of science offered in the recent standards documents, and conforms as well to the descriptions offered by some in the science education research community (Bell et al, 2003;Cobern & Loving, 2001;Smith & Scharmann, 1999;Southerland, 2000). Recent research from the field of science studies, however, has shown that objective truths about the world are not as easily obtained as these descriptions suggest.…”

Meet the Scientist: The Value of Short Interactions Between Scientists and Students

“…The literature on scientist-student interactions is drawn mainly from summer school programmes and apprenticeship evaluations (Bell, Blair, Crawford, & Lederman, 2003;Bleicher, 1996;Knox, Moynihan, & Markowitz, 2003;Rahm, 2007) and focuses on how these programmes have influenced students' attitudes towards science and students' conceptual and epistemological understanding. For instance, Knox et al (2003) investigated the impact of a summer school programme at a university research facility on 14 -18-year-old students' interest in science and their perceived skills in laboratory work.…”

“…Similarly, Gibson and Chase (2002) found that students participating in a summer school programme developed more positive attitudes towards science and towards science careers compared to students who did not participate in the summer school programme. Bell et al (2003) found that 15-17-year-old students, who participated in an 8-week science apprenticeship programme working alongside scientists covering a range of science procedures including research design, data collection and data analysis, did not change their views of scientific inquiry and the nature of science (NOS) considerably. Bell et al (2003) argue that the extent to which explicit discussions about the NOS and scientists' work were taking place during these apprenticeships was vital for whether students would change or not their NOS views.…”

Improving the Eighth Graders’ Motivation Toward Science Learning Through Inquiry-Based Teaching

“…In this kind of processes, students do not need to actually think. As a result, they are not curious about exploring things, the space for imagination is limited, and the excitement of finding answers through science is reduced (Bell, Blair, Crawford, & Lederman, 2003;Chinn & Malhotra, 2002;Hickey, Kindfield, Horwitz, & Christie, 2003).…”