Doctoral Dissertation Research: Learning through Interaction and Embodied Practice in a Scientific Laboratory

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant focuses on different kinds of learning in a scientific environment, especially the roles that language and other semiotic modalities play in scientific apprenticeship. . NSF supports twelve months of fieldwork. The data collection methods include: (1) video and audio recording of learning situations in the laboratory, (2) video and audio recording of weekly meetings, and (3) interviews with participants to obtain additional data to clarify complicated procedures. The research will seek to explore the role of language in the formulation of scientific explanations, both in spoken everyday expressions, and in the interpretation of 'inscriptions' (Latour &Woolgar 1979) resulting from analyses made by sophisticated technological instruments. Further, it will examine the ways that language contributes to the building of scientific theory, through proposing that scientific evidence is fixated in an interactive and consensual manner, with the help of interactional routines like conversation, and question and answer procedures. The project describes the laboratory as a social space where scientists work and develop their theories, and where novices are initiated into the field by experts. The study focuses on the different aspects of apprenticeship encountered in the laboratory, especially the learning processes involved in acquiring scientific methods and skills, but also the more transparent processes of learning 'how to become a scientist'; to gain access to and "connect with the history of the practice and to participate more directly in its cultural life" (Lave and Wenger, 1991:101). Special attention will be given to the use of metaphors in scientific discussions, to detect possible paradigm shifts in the way data is perceived. While others have looked at the way that language functions as the medium through which something is learned, this study will add to this by looking at how embodied action is an essential part of the learning experience, for example through iconic gestures or visual explanations. The project of writing an ethnography of a microbiological laboratory informs several aspects of vital importance to anthropology. Although the community is a small one, it is representative of a much larger community, the professional world of microbiology. The study of scientific laboratories offers insights into a certain kind of epistemic community with its own practices, scholarship, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. It addresses linguistic anthropological concerns about how the discipline integrates microanalyses of local discourse with macro-analyses of larger societal discourses. Furthermore, this study seeks to investigate the acquisition of scientific knowledge through the study of interactions between members of a scientific research community, and will place extensive emphasis on nonverbal interaction, a perspective that so far has occupied a peripheral position in the discipline. It contributes to the field of "Science, Technology and Society" by investigating how scientific and technological understanding is gained through language in interaction. This study's broader impact is found through the realization that scientific workplaces represent knowledge that is becoming more and more important in our world of complicated technology, and the way such knowledge is generated plays an integrated part in how it impacts society.