The Fact of the Text: Exploring Misalignment in Undergraduate Lab Reports

Lab reports are a typical pedagogical genre in many science fields, yet scholars do not agree on the contribution of lab reports to future disciplinary participation. The study described here-based on genre-oriented activity theory as well as connections of joint attention to rhetorical notions of recurrence-compares a physics lab course instructor's reading of lab reports with his students' reading. Using think-aloud protocols, the study demonstrates relatively low levels of alignment between the instructor's and the students' attention as they read lab reports. Given that the study site was an upper-level undergraduate course, the lack of alignment within laminated activities systems seems discouraging, but results point toward implications for classroom writing, especially within Writing Across the Curriculum courses meant to extend both students' learning and their approaches for communicating their knowledge to others.