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Language, Literacy, and Learning in STEM Education: Research Methods and Perspectives from Applied Linguistics
Edited by Mary Jane Curry and David I. Hanauer
[Language Studies, Science and Engineering 1] 2014
► pp. 27–42

Chapter 3. A genre analysis of student microbiology laboratory notebooks

| Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This chapter reports on a qualitative analysis of student laboratory notebooks in a professional microbiology laboratory. The study explored the genre characteristics of laboratory notebooks and organized these characteristics according to social functions, models of notebook completion, and types of entry utilized. To conduct this study, a system for analyzing notebook entry type was modified from Ruiz-Primo, Li, and Shavelson (2002). The results suggest that the laboratory notebook is a multifaceted literacy object that functions as a scientific document for recording laboratory activities, a learning tool for acquiring laboratory protocols, and a personal journal for enhancing scientific engagement.

Published online: 12 June 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lsse.1.03han
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