Coping with Challenges and Uncertainty in Scientific Research: Case Studies of Two Postdoctoral Researchers in an Epigenetics Laboratory

Abstract

To effectively employ inquiry-based learning to enhance students' inquiry practices and encourage them to think and act like scientists, science teachers must have a deeper understanding of the factors that influence scientific research and attitudes about scientist practice. This research contains the experience of two postdoctoral researchers in epigenetics as graduate students in a newly established epigenetics laboratory. Two in-depth interviews, two preliminary questionnaires, a record of laboratory visits, and a supervisor interview were analyzed for this qualitative research. Even though the two postdoctoral researchers have encountered various obstacles, such as a lack of resources, scientific uncertainty, and unestablished personal identity, they are effectively maturing as scientists as a result of their capacity to overcome these obstacles. This study may provide science educators and students with a better understanding of the challenges they will experience in their scientific work and strategies for overcoming those challenges.