How Do Doctoral Students in STEM Fields Engage in Scientific Knowledge Practices?

Autor/inn/en	Vekkaila, Jenna; Virtanen, Viivi; Kukkola, Jani; Frick, Liezel; Pyhältö, Kirsi
Titel	How Do Doctoral Students in STEM Fields Engage in Scientific Knowledge Practices?
Quelle	In: Frontline Learning Research, 7 (2019) 1, S.51-64 (14 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Vekkaila, Jenna)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2295-3159
Schlagwörter	Graduate Students; STEM Education; Science Process Skills; Student Research; Foreign Countries; Scientific Research; Research Projects; Learner Engagement; Active Learning; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; STEM; Studentenforschung; Ausland; Forschungsvorhaben; Aktives Lernen; Finnland
Abstract	Knowledge creation is at the core of scientific endeavour. As early career researchers, doctoral students take part in knowledge creation through engaging in various knowledge practices and make their original contribution to knowledge, and become experts in their particular domain. However, our understanding of what doctoral knowledge practices entails is still insufficient. For this study, a total of 34 doctoral students from STEM fields, including natural sciences, bio- and environmental sciences and medicine were interviewed to gain a better understanding of the kinds of knowledge practices in which doctoral students in the sciences engage. The data were collected with semi-structured interviews, which were qualitatively content analysed. The results showed that the participants mostly described activities that were established everyday knowledge practices of the researcher community (75%), whereas practices that were innovative (25%), entailing transformation of the current practices and developing new ones, were less often reported. Moreover, the practices were typically collective, involving the students, their supervisors or other members of their research groups (67%). Further investigation showed that the participants were typically actively engaged in knowledge practices (79%) rather than just adapting existing ones (13%). Perceiving oneself as a bystander was even less typical (8%). The significance of this study lies in exploring doctoral students' self-reported knowledge practices in STEM fields, and demonstrates that they perceive themselves as actively and collaboratively engaged in creating knowledge. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. Peterseliegang 1, Box 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. e-mail: info@frontlinelearningresearch.org; Web site: http://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/index
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01