Just do it?: Impact of a science apprenticeship program on high school students' understandings of the Nature of science and scientific inquiry

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. 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 487–509, 2003 Correspondence to: R.L. Bell; E-mail: randybell@virginia.edu DOI 10.1002/tea.10086 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Recent reforms in science education stress the importance of precollege students’ developing current understandings of the nature of science and scientific inquiry [e.g., American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1989; National Research Council (NRC), 1996]. The rationale behind this goal is the development of scientific literacy for all citizens. Scientific literacy is commonly portrayed as the ability to make informed decisions on science and technology– based issues and is linked to deep understandings of scientific concepts, the processes of scientific inquiry, and the nature of science. Unfortunately, research has consistently shown that students typically do not develop such understandings through their participation in school science (Aikenhead, 1973; Bady, 1979; Broadhurst, 1970; Duschl, 1988; Larochelle & Desautels, 1991; Lederman, 1992; Lederman & O’Malley, 1990; Matthews, 1994; Meichtry, 1992; Rubba, Horner, & Smith, 1981; Welch, 1979, 1981). A common recommendation among these and other studies has been for educators to provide students with opportunities to do science through either in-class science projects or extracurricular work with scientists. Indeed, both scientists (NRC, 1996; Rock & Lauten, 1996) and educators (Gallagher, 1991; Lemke, 1990; Schmidt, 1967; Solomon, 1991; Tobin & Gallagher, 1987) have supported programs and curricular materials that involve students in authentic science research. Science educators have assumed that working on authentic science research projects facilitates the development of scientific literacy by enhancing students’ understandings of science content, the processes and logic of scientific inquiry, and the nature of science. For example, the National Science Education Standards stress the efficacy of learning of science content within the context of real-world problems and phenomena (NRC, 1996). By experiencing the messiness of doing science, science educators have hoped that students would go beyond learning science content to experiencing and learning about the processes of science. Furthermore, opportunities to experience science-in-the-making and engaging in discourse with professional scientists could possibly lead to better understandings of the nature of science. Involvement in scientific inquiry can range from relatively brief classroom activities to lengthy projects in research laboratories. It is generally believed that the more authentic the research experience, such as an apprenticeship guided by a science professional, the more likely students will learn about aspects of scientific inquiry (Barab & Hay, 2001; Ritchie & Rigano, 1996). In regard to learning the processes of science, Hodson (1993) explained, Because the ways in which scientists work are not fixed and not predictable, and because they involve a component that is experience-dependent in a very personal sense, they are not directly teachable. That is, one cannot learn to do science by learning a prescription or set of processes to be applied in all situations. The only effective way to learn to do science is by doing science, alongside a skilled and experienced practitioner who can provide onthe-job support, criticism, and advice. (p. 120) In answer to this and similar calls, a variety of programs have sought to place students in research laboratories or special programs to develop broader and more complete understandings of the processes and nature of science (Barab & Hay, 2001; Bleicher, 1996; Cooley & Bassett, 1961; Krasny, 1999; Richmond & Kurth, 1999; Ritchie & Rigano, 1996). In addition to learning the processes of doing science, researchers and program developers have hoped that students would learn about the scientific enterprise through participation in authentic science experiences (Krajcik et al., 1998; Means, 1998; Moss, Abrams, & Kull, 1998; Moss, Abrams, & Robb, 2001; Ruopp, 1994; Ryder & Leach, 1999). In other words, students are expected to make gains in their understandings of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. This learning is sometimes seen as a natural outcome of students’ participation in scientific inquiry. For 488 BELL ET AL.