Formation of students’ investigative expertise in the school science laboratory – a study of practical work in lower secondary school

Work in the school science laboratory has been criticized for being pseudo-experimental, resulting only in a reproduction of already well-known facts and theories. The point of departure in this paper is rather what students actually have the possibility to learn. What we learn must be understood as an aspect of the activities we engage in. In this article the formation of students in the school science laboratory is analyzed within a cultural historical tradition. The research approach is ethnographic. Two science classes, grade six and seven, were studied in a Swedish midsized compulsory school during one school-year. A conclusion is that both students’ laboratory skills and their abilities to discern, classify, and represent nature and the physical reality is developed