Moving from outside to inside: High school students' use of apprenticeships as vehicles for entering the culture and practice of science

The purpose of this study was to investigate how research apprenticeships s haped students' views of the culture and practice of science. Twenty-seven 11th and 12th graders from across the United States and American Samoa part icipating in a summer research program were interviewed individually three times over 7 weeks. Seven students were selected as a representative focus group, and in addition to interviews, their journals, entrance questionnair es, and exit questionnaires were analyzed for what they revealed about stud ents' ideas of what constituted scientific work, of the research process, o f the existence and importance of communities in which they participated, a nd of the roles they played in these communities. Based on the pattern of s tudent comments and perspectives, we identified four dimensions of scientif ic practice and culture whose salience and complexity increased and became articulated over the 7-week period. These dimensions included technical lan guage, collaboration, uncertainty, and inquiry. The learning that took plac e with regard to these dimensions took place within three program-embedded communities, which we identified as laboratory-centered, program-centered, and peer-centered. The roles students played in these communities and the d egree to which they could make use of resources within them contributed to students' view of scientific practice and culture, and to the development o f the identity kits they began to construct of themselves as scientists. (C ) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.