A Phenomenological Study of Rural, High Schools Students' Experiences in Cognitive Apprenticeship Methodology

Abstract

Presently the United States has a deficit of qualified STEM applicants and is relying on foreign students to relieve the shortfall. To relieve this deficit, members of underrepresented populations, such as women and minorities, must be recruited into STEM programs. Science foundations and institutions have endorsed the use of open-inquiry authentic research to help resolve the problem. Cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989) a social constructivist methodology, is a conceptual framework for implementing authentic research in science classrooms. It incorporates theoretic framework based on the literary works of John Dewey (1938/1997) and Lev Vygotsky (1978). During the 2014-2015 academic year and the spring semester of 2016, two open-inquiry research projects took place at a remote, rural high school in Southeast Oklahoma. The projects, the Rhizobia and Wolbachia Projects, included twelve students. The projects required the students to learn advanced technical and cognitive skills. Six of the students agreed to participate in a phenomenological study (Moustakas, 1994) to document their feelings, perceptions, and impressions while they were in the projects. The interviews were transcribed, member-checked, and analyzed. Student recruitment for this study was based on participation in one or both projects, plus graduation from high school. Four of the students were female, and two were male. One was a foreign exchange student and one was Choctaw Native American. Five out of the six students in the study are now attending a university and majoring in STEM fields. Many of the students perceived they not only mastered the cognitive and technical skills, but the projects also helped to increase their confidence and organizational skills. Mastering these skills reassured them of their ability to be successful in a post-secondary STEM major.

Keywords: cognitive apprenticeship, phenomenology, open-inquiry research, project based learning, underrepresented populations