#691: More Than Digging a Hole in the Ground: Novice Enactment of Science Practice in an Archaeological Apprenticeship

While science education emphasizes learning through authentic practice, the specific processes that transform routine participation into scientific inquiry remain underexamined. This study investigates these processes within an archaeological summer program. Through qualitative analysis of interviews with 11 undergraduate novices, we seek to understand the science practice novices enact and the experiences that facilitate this enactment. Findings suggest that students readily engaged in embodied routines throughout and began conceptual problematization when encountering new and exciting artifacts. However, their development could be constrained by their peripheral social position, which limited access to expert reasoning and decision-making. These findings highlight the challenge of moving novices from “doing” tasks to “thinking” scientifically. We argue that authentic apprenticeships could leverage expert thinking to link the embodied routines to the conceptual and epistemic work of the discipline.