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Part of
The Pragmatics of Adaptability
Edited by Daniel N. Silva and Jacob L. Mey
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 319] 2021
► pp. 285–298

Chapter 13
Apprenticeship in microbiology

Embodied adaptation to experimental and technological aspects of learning

| University of Texas at Austin

Based on participant observation of work in a big US university’s molecular biology department, I discuss how students are guided towards becoming competent scientists. On joining a closely knit community of research and practice, the student has to adapt to an overwhelming environment of techniques, parlance, habits and social mores, while absorbing a massive scientific and practical input. In the apprentice system’s,‘learning by doing’, the mentor-mentee relation and the students’ interactions between themselves and with their studied objects (here, highly contagious bacteria) are more important than verbal teaching; but they also add pressure to the learning process. By adapting to this environment (which includes many smaller adaptive interactions), the apprentices create a solid foundation for their future teaching, research, and practice.

Keywords: science education, mentor/apprenticeship, learning by doing, embodied adaptation, hand/tool coordination
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.New trends in science education
  • 3.Apprenticeship in microbiology
  • 4.Adaptability to a scientific workplace
    • 4.1A new social environment
    • 4.2New terminology and scientific language
    • 4.3Adaptation to the objects, tools, and instruments of the scientific profession
    • 4.4Embodied adaptation
    • 4.5 Embodiment in scientific practice
  • 5.Manual sensitivity
    • 5.1The art of plating and spreading
    • 5.2Spreading
    • 5.3Leia using the turntable to spread
    • 5.4Representational gestures
    • 5.5Gestures indicating invisible processes
    • 5.6NanoDrop
  • 6. Conclusion
    • 6.1Adaptation to scientific practice
    • 6.2Integration of body and tools
  • References
Published online: 17 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.319.13mey
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