Science Self-Efficacy and Lifelong Learning: Emerging Adults in Science Museums

Recent research suggests that emerging adulthood—the stage between adolescence and maturity marked by a lengthy process of identity development—constitutes a window of opportunity for museums to influence adults' lifelong science learning trajectories. The current study sought to explore the impact of a single museum visit on emerging adults' science self-efficacy, beliefs about their own abilities to learn or do science. A repeated measures design assessed the science self-efficacy of 244 emerging adults before, immediately after, and three months after a science museum visit. Results from surveys and interviews indicate that self-efficacy increased after the visit, but only females maintained their elevated self-efficacy three months after the visit. Increases were associated with the visit and with self-reports citing mastery at exhibits, vicariously watching others at exhibits, and positive emotional experiences within the museum. The article discusses the study's limitations as well as implications for research and museum practice.     

Learning Impacts of a Digital Augmentation in a Science Museum

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of using digital augmentation to enhance an exhibit device to influence conceptual understanding about a science topic in a science museum setting. In particular, the study considered how students in Grades 6–8 engaged with the device that was available in both augmented and nonaugmented (control) conditions. Results show increased cognitive (critical thinking) skills when the digital augmentation was present that we hypothesize led to increased conceptual gains. We illustrate how this research contributes to three important areas of need identified in informal science literature: the need for evidence of conceptual and cognitive gains; the need for understanding how digital platforms improve the learning experience; and the need to demonstrate how designed interactive devices may impact higher order skills such as critical thinking and theorizing.     

Evaluating Family Interactions to Inform Exhibit Design: Comparing Three Different Learning Behaviors in a Museum Setting

ABSTRACT

How do we know that families are learning during the museum visit itself? In order to address this question, this study focuses on three frequently evaluated indicators of during-visit learning: time spent, exhibit engagement, and interpretive talk. Each of these types of data makes certain assumptions about family learning and how it occurs. Four hundred ninety-three family interactions at 25 different children's museum exhibits were analyzed to examine what the three measures reveal about family learning behavior. When compared, the three measures were not highly correlated, suggesting that generalizing information about the family experience from a single indicator is insufficient. Looking at all three indicators simultaneously can help evaluators begin to explore the relationships between families’ learning behaviors, and think about how exhibit characteristics can influence potential learning opportunities in informal settings.     

Incorporating Handheld Computers into a Public Science Center: A Design Research Study

ABSTRACT

The feasibility of using handheld computers to customize learning opportunities was explored using a design research process with 68 visitor groups to a small interactive science museum and aquarium. The authors discuss the iterations of the research process, reasons given for both using and not using the handheld computers, and findings related to participants' prior use of handheld computers and their perception of the effects of using the device on their visit. The authors discuss the findings in light of current research on visitor motivations and identities, as well as models of customization. Recommendations for practitioners interested in implementing similar programs, and suggestions for further research are included.     

Learning at Workstations in the Zoo: A Controlled Evaluation of Cognitive and Affective Outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to test the cognitive and affective benefits gained through the provision of educational materials at workstations in the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany. Structured learning materials were developed for use with visiting school groups. The materials focused on the adaptations of 6 selected groups of bird species and were organized as a self-guided learning environment (workstations). The value of the materials was assessed in terms of cognitive (learning and retention) and emotional (interest, well-being, boredom, anxiety, contentedness) variables. The authors measured prior knowledge (1 week before the zoo visit), learning effect (1 week after the visit), and retention (8 to 9 weeks later). A total of 103 students (6th graders aged between 11–12 years) participated in the study, 77 receiving a treatment about adaptations in bird species and 26 receiving a treatment about reptiles which served as a control. Students had similar prior knowledge, but 1 week later students receiving the bird unit scored significantly better and this persisted into retention. Girls achieved higher scores than boys, both 1 week and 8 to 9 weeks after the visit. Surprisingly, students in the control group reported higher interest, well-being and contentedness, and lower boredom than those in the treatment group.     

Counter-Arguing During Curriculum-Supported Peer Interaction Facilitates Middle-School Students’ Science Content Knowledge

Abstract

Peer argumentation, especially the discussion of contrary points of view, has experimentally been found to be effective in promoting science content knowledge, but how this occurs is still unknown. The available explanations are insufficient because they do not account for the evidence showing that gains in content knowledge are unrelated to group outcomes and are still evident weeks after collaboration occurs. The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between peer-group argumentation and science content knowledge learning. A total of 187 students (aged 10 to 11?years) from 8 classrooms participated in the study, with the classrooms spread across 8 public schools, all located in Santiago, Chile. We conducted a quasi-experimental study randomized at school-class level. Four teachers delivered science lessons following a teaching program especially developed to foster dialogic and argumentative classroom talk (the intervention group), and four teachers delivered lessons in their usual way (the control group). Students were assessed individually using both immediate and delayed post-test measures of science content knowledge. The results showed no differences in pre- to post-immediate content knowledge between conditions. However, the intervention-group students increased their content knowledge significantly more than the control-group students between post-immediate and post-delayed tests. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, after controlling for school-level variables, time working in groups, and scores in the pretest, the formulation of counter arguments, although occurring in both groups, significantly predicted delayed gains in the intervention group only. Moreover, the frequency of counterarguments heard by students during the group work did not make a difference. Focal analysis of one small-group work suggests that teachers’ instructional practice may have contributed to the consolidation of students’ knowledge at an individual level in a post-collaborative phase.     

Design-Based Research on Digital Media in a Museum Environment

ABSTRACT

This article describes the application of a design-based research approach at the Deutsches Museum, a German science and technology museum, in a collaborative project examining how digital media can support museum learning. Design-based research is an integrative approach that combines the development of theoretical knowledge and the research-practice transfer. The application of a design-based research approach is discussed in the context of the history of visitor studies at the Deutsches Museum. Three projects examining the educational potential of media exhibits serve as examples of how this approach has been implemented, and illustrate how design-based research can address the problems and questions of practitioners as well as relevant psychological research issues. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the challenges and opportunities related to this new approach.     

A Short Review of School Field Trips: Key Findings from the Past and Implications for the Future

ABSTRACT

This review of the literature on field trips to out-of-school settings will briefly summarize key findings and discuss implications for future research and field trip practice. Cognitive and affective learning can occur as a result of class visits to out-of-school settings, and learning outcomes are fundamentally influenced by the structure of the field trip, setting novelty, prior knowledge and interest of the students, the social context of the visit, teacher agendas, student experiences during the field trip, and the presence or absence and quality of preparation and follow-up. Field trips, however, are not ideal for teaching complex concepts or even isolated facts, they are not “better classroom settings”; instead, they serve best as opportunities for exploration, discovery, first-hand and original experiences. Despite systemic pressures to the contrary, teachers and informal educators tend to agree on this broader vision of field trips and this article makes a variety of suggestions for putting such a vision into practice.     

Engagement in a Science Museum – The Role of Social Interactions

This qualitative research explores the interactions of elementary school students during free-choice activity with science museum exhibits. The study participants were 39 students, who visited a science museum on six occasions during a three-year-period (from 4^th to 6^th grades). Our study showed that most interactions around exhibits are social in nature. Within these social interactions, students mainly discuss the technicalities of operating the exhibits and rarely engage with their scientific content. On occasion, exhibits are no more than settings for social interactions that could equally occur, for example, in the schoolyard. The main implications of this study concern exhibit design and pedagogy. Because students find ways to create their own social interactions in museum settings, museum pedagogy should leverage this social interaction into cognitive engagement with the scientific content of exhibits.     

COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION IN A READING CLINIC: COMPARISON OF CLINIC AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine middle school students’ (grades 4 to 8) metacognitive knowledge about science reading, science text, and science reading strategies. The 52 subjects were selected from 532 students who completed a survey instrument designed to determine students’ knowledge about science reading, science text, and science reading strategies. The stratified randomly sampled students were interviewed using five structured protocols. The protocol items were based on 21 strategic characteristics of successful readers of science text and three domains of metacognitive knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Quantitative analyses reveal surface level metacognitive knowledge about 20 of 21 strategies explored and similar levels of knowledge across the three metacognitive domains. A qualitative analysis indicates that average middle school students’ metacognitive knowledge of science reading, science text, and science reading strategies is similar to that of younger and poorer readers of narrative text.     

Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Science-Day Programs at University-Based Science Outreach Centers

Abstract

University-based science youth centers offer science-day activities for students that include lectures and sometimes a laboratory experience. This phenomenological study explores stakeholders’ views of science-day programs at 3 different university-based science outreach centers. The study describes the characteristics, the goals, the pedagogy, and the challenges of science days as voiced by the different informants. We found that the main goal was exposing students to science and “showing STEM is fun." Some teachers sought added value of learning in out-of-school environments and pointed to the importance of hands-on activities. The centers’ staff did not address pedagogy and viewed teachers’ role as being chaperons. Teachers felt patronized by the young guides who did not acknowledge their experience and expertise. Some differences in approaches of junior and senior teachers are discussed. In conclusion, we recommend mutual discussion of goals, and finding ways for teachers and centers' staff to collaborate in planning and enactment of science days.     

自然事物认知偏好的初步实验研究

本研究从认知心理学角度采用实验方法探索自然科学学习的影响因素。发现：1自然事物的认知偏好中存在内隐学习现象。2．自然事物认知偏好的表现非常复杂：年龄的影响并不显著,经验的影响不可忽视;3．性别差异十分明显,男生比女生的自然事物认知偏好更为肯定更为积极,很可能社会性别角色是造成自然科学学习结果差异的重要原因;4．内隐组学习坦率好奇,倾向于把自然事物看得更熟悉更容易,具有更强的探究兴趣：外显组学生矜持审慎,倾向于把自然事物看得更陌生更难以理解,探究兴趣较弱。因此,科学教育要创设情境让学生潜移默化地学以致用;要帮助学生利用经验并从中获取乐趣、增长兴趣、树立志趣;要鼓励女孩子大胆挑战科学。     

汉语作为第二语言的越南大学生汉字部件意识的发展*

以226名将汉语作为第二语言的越南大学一到四年级学生为研究对象,以低频独体字、部件熟悉假字和部件不熟悉假字为材料,采用延迟书写任务,考察了不同年级的越南大学生汉字部件意识的发展及其影响因素。结果发现：（1）学习3个月汉语的大一学生能以部件作为汉字加工单元,其延迟书写部件熟悉假字显著好于低频独体字,并与高年级学生没有差异,说明越南大学生很早就发展出了汉字部件意识;（2）不同年级大学生书写部件不熟悉假字的成绩都显著低于部件熟悉假字,也低于低频独体字,表明部件构字能力是越南大学生汉字书写的重要影响因素。（3）越南大一学生的汉字书写成绩受到汉字结构的影响,左右结构优于上下结构,但其他年级的成绩不受汉字结构的影响。     

The Emergence of Student Creativity in Classroom Settings: A Case Study of Elementary Schools in Korea

This research explores the emergence of student creativity in classroom settings, specifically within two content areas: science and social studies. Fourteen classrooms in three elementary schools in Korea were observed, and the teachers and students were interviewed. The three types of student creativity emerging in the teaching and learning process found in this research were: (a) heuristic creativity when the students express their thoughts about a new concept based on their experience, (b) interpretive creativity when the students explain the meaning of materials based on students' knowledge, and (c) integrative creativity when students generate new solutions or make new products based on their internalized knowledge. The study results will challenge teachers to find instances of student creativity in their teaching and learning situations and to facilitate student creativity when the students interpret data or materials related to the contents of the curriculum.     

Priming students for whole-class interaction: using interdependence to support behavioral engagement

Student interaction at a whole-class level is tied to learning outcomes, but encouraging students to engage with their peers at a whole-class level is difficult. While little research has sought to promote student engagement with one another at this level, one factor that has been shown to increase student interaction in pairs and small groups is student–student interdependency. Yet, to date, no studies have attempted to examine the impact of prior interdependency at this smaller scale on students’ interactions as a whole-class. The current study tested this relationship in an undergraduate class learning science content (n?=?19) through structuring interdependency (task and resource) during science learning. Students completed six science learning sessions each of which included a science learning activity followed by a whole-class concept mapping task. Students were audio and video recorded during the whole-class task, and then individual student behavior was coded in 10 s intervals during the first 10 min of each session. Generalized regression results showed that adding small group interdependency during learning predicted significantly more student science discussion (R²?=?.05) and supportive interactions (R²?=?.16), while predicting decreased expressions of science misunderstanding (R²?=?.07) during the whole-class task. Additionally, the combination of task and resource interdependency predicted a further decrease in student expressions of misunderstanding (R²?=?.07), but also increased student social distraction in comparison to task interdependency alone (R²?=?.28). Together these findings suggest that prior interdependency can be leveraged to increase student behavioral engagement at the whole-class level.