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Learning Science in Informal Environments Resources
This portion of the site contains a cross-section of papers pertaining to science learning. Please note that any information given below or its links does not reflect the work of the Board and committees, and may be subject to copyright restrictions of the writer and/or organization. Any opinions and statements are solely those of the individual persons or their organization, and are not necessarily adopted or endorsed or verified as accurate by The National Academies. Please note that this is a work in progress; therefore, the list will be updated on a regular basis.
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The Field of Learning Science in Informal Environments
Out-of-School and Free Choice Learning Programs
Diversity Issues and Learning Science in Informal Environments
Learning from Media
Learning in Museums and Other Designed Environments
The Nature of Learning
Everyday Learning and Families
The Field of Learning Science in Informal Environments
Bekerman, Z., Burbules, N. C., & Keller, D. S. (2006). Learning in places- the informal education reader. New York: Peter Lang.
Description: Learning in Places is a book written by a group of international researchers to create a resource that can introduce academic, professional and lay readers to the field of informal learning/education and its potential to transform present educational thinking. The book presents a number of ideas from a wide variety of disciplinary fields and methodological approaches covering multiple learning landscapes—in museums, workplaces, classrooms, and places of recreation—in a variety of political, social and cultural contexts around the world. Learning in Places presents the most recent theoretical advances in the field; analyzing the social, cultural, political, historical and economical contexts within which informal learning develops and must be critiqued. It also looks into the epistemology that nourishes its development and into the practices that characterize its implementation; and finally reflects on the variety of educational contexts in which it is practiced.
COSMOS Corporation. (1998). A report on the evaluation of the National Science Foundation's informal science education program.
Description: This report summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Informal Science Education (ISE) program. The program provides support for a variety of informal science education activities, including museum exhibits; television series and programs for youth or the general public; films on science and mathematics topics; exhibits or educational programs at science and natural history museums, science-technology centers, aquaria, nature centers, biological gardens, arboreta, zoological parks, and libraries; and educational programs and activities at community and youth centers. NSF awarded a contract to COSMOS Corporation and its subcontractors, Educational Testing Service, and Westat, Inc., to evaluate the impact of the ISE program. The evaluation was conducted and prepared for the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication. Mary Sladek, the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) for the study, provided general direction and oversight. Using a question-and-answer format, the report defines informal science education, presents an overview of the ISE evaluation conducted by COSMOS Corporation, and summarizes its major findings and recommendations. The narrative analysis of the data presented in the report draws on results of site visits, focus groups, interviews, and surveys of people with science-related careers and those receiving ISE funds.
Crane, V. (1994). An Introduction to informal science learning research. In V. Crane (Ed.), Informal science learning: What the research says about television, science museums, and community-based Projects. Deham, MA: Research Communications Ltd.
Dierking, L. D., Falk, J. H., Rennie, L., Anderson, D., & Ellenbogen, K. (2003). Policy statement of the "Informal science education" Ad Hoc committee Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 108-111.
Abstract: In the spring of 1999, the Board of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST) established an Informal Science Education Ad Hoc committee, co-chaired by Lynn Dierking and John Falk. The Committee's task was to focus on the organization's positioning in regard to out-of-school science education. After 2 years of work, the committee composed a policy statement, included below, that was presented to, and accepted by, the NARST Board. The policy statement defines this arena of research, describes a variety of out-of-school environments in which science learning occurs, identifies issues related to conducting research in this area, and makes recommendations for building a community of researchers in this field and for facilitating opportunities for collaborative initiatives with other research areas in NARST.
Dierking, L. D. & Martin, L. (1997). Guest editorial: Introduction. Science Education, 81(6), 629-631.
Falk, J. H. & Dierking, L. D. (1998). Free-choice learning: An alternative term to informal learning? Informal Learning Environments Research, 2(2).
Martin, L. (2004). An emerging research framework for studying informal learning and schools. Science Education, 88, S71-S82.
Abstract: In recognition of the fact that science centers and other informal educational institutions can play a role in the reform of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, several major research and professional programs are currently underway. This article discusses one such effort, the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS), a collaboration of the Exploratorium, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and King's College, London and the need for a theoretical framework based on socio-cultural theory to link discussion of varied efforts characterizing science learning in informal settings. The article discusses two key problematics related to developments in the science education field of the past decade: (1) integrating studies that are undertaken from multiple disciplinary perspectives, namely, science education, developmental psychology, and cultural studies, and (2) characterizing critical properties of informal learning in museums. It reviews work that has been conducted in non-school settings and, using examples from research conducted by the Center for Informal Learning and Schools, it reviews questions currently under investigation.
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Out-of-School and Free Choice Learning Programs
Bodilly, S. J. & Beckett, M. K. (2005). Making out-of-school time matter: evidence for an action agenda. Washington, DC: RAND Corporation.
Abstract: A loosely connected set of providers, clients, sponsors, and intermediaries make up the local markets referred to as the out-of-school-time (OST) field. This field and the actors in it have been evolving in response to shifts in the economy, the growing demand for services associated with increased numbers of working mothers in the labor force, concerns over youth development or the lack thereof, and increased academic expectations for youth programs. This report presents the findings of a broad-ranging literature review intended to identify, frame, and assess relevant OST issues. Drawing on recent studies the authors provide an objective view of the politicized debate over the future of the field. They identify and address the level of demand for OST services, the effectiveness of offerings, what constitutes quality in OST programs, how to encourage participation, and how to build further community capacity. The report provides recommendations for improving the current debate over provision.
Brossard, D., Lewenstein, B., & Bonney, R. (2005). Scientific knowledge and attitude change: The impact of a citizen science project. International Journal of Science Education, 27(9), 1099–1121.
Abstract: This paper discusses the evaluation of an informal science education project, The Birdhouse Network (TBN) of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. The Elaboration Likelihood Model and the theory of Experiential Education were used as frameworks to analyse the impact of TBN on participants’ attitudes toward science and the environment, on their knowledge of bird biology, and on their understanding of the scientific process. The project had an impact on participants’ knowledge of bird biology. No statistically significant change in participants’ attitudes toward science or the environment, or in participants’ understanding of the scientific process, could be detected. The results suggest that projects must make explicit to participants the issues that they are experiencing. In addition, the results suggest that more sensitive measures need to be designed to assess attitude change among environmentally aware citizens.
Dierking, L. D. & Falk, J. H. (1997). Optimizing out-of-school time: The role of free-choice learning. New Directions for Youth Development, 2003(97), 75-88.
Abstract: Free-choice learning, a new paradigm for the learning that youth and their families engage in outside school, can play an important role in the healthy development of youth, families, and communities. Free-choice learning, which people engage in throughout their lives to find out more about what is useful, compelling, or just plain interesting to them, is guided by learners' needs and interests. Youth and their families are spending increasing amounts of time engaged in such learning--at home, after work, and on weekends. Consequently, it is an untapped resource that represents a significant percentage of all academic and nonacademic learning in the United States. Through free-choice learning, youth can acquire and develop an understanding of a wide array of subjects, learn basic life skills such as how to collaborate on projects and communicate with others, and develop a sense of leadership and responsibility. Free-choice learning can also yield significant learning in cognitive areas normally considered exclusively school subjects, such as science. Two studies documenting these findings are presented. The authors argue that a vibrant free-choice learning sector is as fundamental to youth development as are quality schools, a thriving economy, and healthy, safe communities. Each of the three components--formal schooling, the workplace and free-choice learning sectors--needs to be engaged and working together toward common goals. Currently, all three are functioning largely in isolation, each driven by widely differing perceptions of what their goals and role in society should be.
Dierking, L. D. & Falk, J. H. (1997). School field trips: Assessing their long-term impact. Curator, 40(3), 211-218.
Abstract: Reports on 128 subjects interviewed about their recollections of school field trips during their early years of school. Ninety-six percent could recall school field trips, with the majority recalling when they went, with whom they went, where they went, and three or more specific aspects of what they did. The study reinforces interrelationships between cognition, affect, and physical and social context.
Dworkin, J. B., Larson, R., & Hansen, D. (2003). Adolescents' accounts of growth experiences in youth activities. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32(1), 17-26.
Abstract: Little theory and research exists on the developmental processes that occur during adolescents' participation in extracurricular and community based-activities. As a step in that direction, we conducted 10 focus groups aimed at getting high school students' descriptions of their “growth experiences” in these activities. The youth reported both personal and interpersonal processes of development. The personal experiences included experimentation and identity work, development of initiative skills such as learning to set goals and manage time, and learning strategies for emotional regulation. The interpersonal experiences included acquiring new peer relationships and knowledge, developing group social skills such as taking responsibility and how to work together as a team, and developing valuable connections to adults. Across domains, adolescents described themselves as the agents of their own development and change. Youth activities appear to be a context in which adolescents are active producers of development.
Falk, J. H. (2001). Free-choice science education: How we learn science outside of school. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hall, G., Yohalem, N., Tolman, J., & Wilson, A. (2003). How afterschool programs can most effectively promote positive youth development as a support to academic achievement: A report commissioned by the Boston After-School for All Partnership. National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST), Forum for Youth Development.
Description: This paper commissioned by the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) in association with The Forum for Youth Investment (formerly IYF-US) investigates how after-school programs can most effectively promote positive youth development as a support to academic achievement. The paper intends to: (1) provide a brief overview of learning theory; (2) explain the features and rationale of the positive youth development approach; (3) provide local and national examples of programs utilizing positive youth development strategies to support youth development and academic achievement; (4) articulate the particular challenges facing Boston in its efforts to build the capacity of after-school programs to promote positive youth development; and (5) provide both short-term and long-term recommendations regarding actions and policy activities.
Korpan, C. A. & Bisanz, G. L. (1997). What did you learn outside of school today? Using structured interviews to document home and community activities related to science and technology. Science Education, 81(6), 651.
Abstract: Structured interviews with parents were used to explore their children’s participation in informal science-related activities. Two different interview procedures were developed: one for parents of pre-school and one for parents of school-age children. Both of them included the following sections: information about the child, watching television, adult-child reading activities, science activities at home, community outreach programmes and children asking their parents science and technology-related questions.
Larson, R. (2001). How U.S. children and adolescents spend time: What it does (and Doesn't) tell us about their development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(5), 160-164.
Abstract: Young people develop as “the sum of past experiences,” and data on their time use are one means of quantifying those experiences. U.S. children and adolescents spend dramatically less time than in the agrarian past in household and income generating labor. Because such labor is usually repetitive and unchallenging, this reduction has probably not deprived youths of crucial developmental experience. The schoolwork replacing this time has a clearer relationship to developmental outcomes. American teens, however, spend less time on schoolwork than teens in other industrialized countries. American teenagers have more discretionary time, much spent watching television or interacting with friends; spending large amounts of time in these activities is related to negative developmental outcomes. Increasing amounts of young people’s discretionary time, however, appear to be spent in structured voluntary activities, like arts, sports, and organizations, which may foster initiative, identity, and other positive developmental outcomes.
Nocon, H. & Cole, M. (2006). School’s invasion of “after-school”: Colonization, rationalization, or expansion of access? In Z. Bekerman, N. Burbules, and D. Silberman (Eds.), Learning in places: The informal education reader (pp. 99-122). New York: Peter Lang.
Abstract: This chapter traces the historical process of colonization and rationalization of children’s lives by formal schooling and less formal adult-organized after-school programs. Using an extended case study, the authors argue that while potentially “semi-colonizing,” after-school programs complement formal schooling as valuable sites of informal education. After-school programs provide low income and immigrant children access to social development and learning without failure.
Pugh, K. & Bergin, D. (2005). The effect of schooling on students' out-of-school experience. Educational Researcher, 34(9), 15-23.
Abstract: With the premise that schooling should make a difference in students’ everyday experience, the authors synthesize research on the influence of school learning on students’ out-of-school experience by addressing the contributions and shortcomings of four research areas: (a) transfer, (b) out-of-school learning environments, (c) school-prompted interest, and (d) transformative education. They conclude the following: (a) Little research investigates the influence of school learning on out-of-school experience; (b) the existing research suggests that school learning has less of an influence on out-of-school experience than one would hope for and expect; and (c) under the right conditions, school learning can enrich students’ out-of-school experience.
Rickinson, M., Dillon, J., Teamey, K., Morris, M., Young Choi, M., Sanders, D., & Benefield, P. (2004). A Review of Research on Outdoor Learning. Shrewsbury, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research.
Introduction: There is growing concern that opportunities for outdoor learning by school students in England have decreased substantially in recent years. In response to this, and recent government calls for ‘schools to make better use of the outdoor classroom as a context for teaching and learning’, the Field Studies Council (FSC) and several partner organisations commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake a review of research on outdoor learning. This document summarizes the key findings of this review, which critically examined 150 pieces of research on outdoor learning published in English between 1993 and 2003. The literature encompassed three main types of outdoor learning with primary school pupils, secondary school students and undergraduate learners: 1) fieldwork and outdoor visits; 2) outdoor adventure education; and 3) school grounds/community projects.
Uitto, A., Juuti, K., Lavonen, J., & Meisalo, V. (2005). Is pupils’ interest in biology related to their out-of-school experiences? Journal of Biology Education [Finland], 2.
Villarruel, F. A. & Lerner, R. M. (eds.) (1994). Promoting Community-Based Programs for Socialization and Learning. New Directions for Child Development Series, Number 63. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Abstract: Chapters in this volume describe and analyze distinct types of programs that seek to promote knowledge, competence, and a sense of belonging for diverse youth in environments that permit children's socialization and learning. The following chapters are included: (1) "Development and Context and the Contexts of Learning" (Francisco A. Villarruel and Richard M. Lerner); (2) "Developing Math and Science Materials for School Age Child Care Programs" (Laura Martin and Carol Ascher); (3) "The Project of Learning from the Inner-City Youth Perspective" (Shirley Brice Heath); (4) "A Computer-Oriented After-School Activity: Children's Learning in the Fifth Dimension and La Clase Magica" (Miriam W. Schustack, and others); (5) "On the Edge of School: Creating a New Context for Students' Development" (Thomas Hatch, and others); and (6) "Aspirations of Low-Income Mexican American and European American Parents for Their Children and Adolescents" (Catherine R. Cooper, and others).
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Diversity Issues and Learning Science in Informal Environments
Barton, A. C. & Brickhouses, N. (2006). Engaging Girls in Science. In L. Smulyan (Ed.), Handbook of Gender and Education (pp. 221-235). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kelly, L. (2003). Older Audiences and Museums. Paper presented at ICOM-CECA, Oaxaca City, Mexico.
Kelly, L., Savage, G., Landman, P., & Tonkin, S. (2003). Energised, engaged, everywhere: Older Australians and Museums. A Joint Publication by the Australian Museum and the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
Description: This report provides comprehensive statistical and qualitative information about this group, specifically focusing on leisure habits and museum visiting. As well, a set of recommendations were made for museums to consider when programming for older audiences, listing over forty achievable things that museums can do to attract and satisfy older people that are universally applicable.
Lipka, J. & Mohatt, G. V. (1998)). Transforming the culture of schools: Yup'ik Eskimo examples. Sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.
Description: This book demonstrates that an indigenous teachers' group has the potential to transform the culture of schooling. Personal narratives by Yup'ik Eskimo teachers speak directly to issues of equity and school transformation. Their struggles represent the beginning of a slow process by a group of Yup'ik teachers (Ciulistet) and university colleagues to reconcile differences and conflict between the cultures of school and community. Their story provides insights for others involved in creating culturally responsive education that fundamentally changes the relationship between teachers and schooling, and between the community and schooling. This book is organized in four sections: introductory framework; Description of the Cross-Cultural Education Development Program (alternative teacher education in rural Alaska Native communities) and narratives of three Yup'ik teachers depicting their struggles to be fully accepted as teachers; Yup'ik teaching methods and ways of incorporating ancient Yup'ik wisdom into schooling; and implications for wider change. Chapters are "Introduction: A Framework for Understanding the Possibilities of a Yup'ik Teacher Group" (Jerry Lipka); "The Evolution and Development of a Yup'ik Teacher" (Gerald V. Mohatt, Nancy Sharp); "Two Teachers, Two Contexts" (Gerald V. Mohatt, Fannie Parker); "Don't Act Like a Teacher! Images of Effective Instruction in a Yup'ik Eskimo Classroom" (Sharon Nelson-Barber, Vicki Dull); "Identifying and Understanding Cultural Differences: Towards a Culturally Based Pedagogy" (Jerry Lipka, Evelyn Yanez); "Expanding Curricular and Pedagogical Possibilities: Yup'ik-Based Mathematics, Science, and Literacy" (Jerry Lipka); and "Transforming Schooling: From Possibilities to Actuality?" (Jerry Lipka). An appendix describes methodology used in collaborative action research. An epilogue (Jerry Lipka, Gerald V. Mohatt) discusses declining university support, language shift, continuing development of Ciulistet teachers, and increasing involvement of Native elders in educational development.
Nasir, N. S., Rosebery, A. S., Warren, B., & Lee, C. D. (2006). Learning as a cultural process: achieving equity through diversity. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 489-504). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Nasir, N. S., Roseberry, A., Warren, B., and Lee, C. (2005). Achieving equity through diversity: Learning as cultural process. In K. Holyoak and R. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. : Cambridge University Press.
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Learning from Media
Bosch, A. (1997). Interactive Radio Instruction: Twenty-three Years of Improving Educational Quality. Education and Technology Notes. 1(1).
Abstract: Learners retain approximately 10% of what they read, 26% of what they hear, 50% of what they see and hear, but 90% of what they say and do (Silcox, 1993). It is no wonder, then, that interactive radio instruction (IRI), a methodology developed to turn a typically one way technology into a tool for active learning inside and outside of the classroom, continues after twenty-three years to be an attractive educational strategy in developing countries. The original model for teaching mathematics through IRI, created in Nicaragua by a team from Stanford University in the early 1970s, sought to combine the low cost and high reach of the radio medium and an understanding of how people learn. Since that time, eighteen countries around the world have developed IRI programs for a variety of subject matter, audiences and learning environments, many of which have been sustained for up to ten years and counting. The levels of math, science, health, English, Spanish, Portuguese, environmental education, early childhood development, and adult basic education for learners of all ages. In each case, the series has been designed by local specialists specifically to capture the interest of the learner, and to meet learning objectives in that country. Twenty-three years later, the interest in IRI does not seem to be waning. (see Appendix I for a list of IRl projects and their status)
Chen, M. (1994). Television and informal science education: Assessing the past, present and future of research. In V. Crane, H. Nicholson, M. Chen, & S. Bitgood (Eds.), Informal science learning: What research says about television, science museums and community-based projects (pp. 15-59). Dedham, MA: Research Communications Limited.
Comstock, G. & Scharrer, E. (2001). The use of television and other film-related media. In D. G. Singer & J. L. Singer (Eds.), Handbook of Children and the Media (pp. 47-72). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Cook, J. & Smith, M. (2004). Beyond formal learning: informal community eLearning. Computers & Education, 43, 35-47.
Abstract: The goal of the study described in this paper was to gain an improved understanding of the social context of UK online centres and issues around the creation and exchange of knowledge within and between online community centres. Grounded theory and a pilot study were used to guide our research. The key findings of our research were (i) an elucidation of the goals that drive individuals to improve or share knowledge with others and (ii) the high level concept categories of life-cycles provided us with the basis for a model which characterises formation of, and participation in, informal learning communities. Indeed, the high level concept categories that emerged as strongly supported in our analysis point to the need for interdisciplinary theorising in this area. In this paper we will: (a) give a summary of what we mean by informal community eLearning, (b) illustrate the key issues with results from a study of UK online centres, and (c) make recommendations for future theorising and research directions.
Dhingra, K. (2003). Thinking about television science: How students understand the nature of science from different program genres. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 234-256.
Abstract: Student views on the nature of science are shaped by a variety of out-of-school forces and television-mediated science is a significant force. To attempt to achieve a science for all, we need to recognize and understand the diverse messages about science that students access and think about on a regular basis. In this work I examine how high school students think about science that is mediated by four different program genres on television: documentary, magazine-format programming, network news, and dramatic or fictional programming. The following categories of findings are discussed: the ethics and validity of science, final form science, science as portrayed by its practitioners, and school science and television science. Student perceptions of the nature of science depicted on the program sample used in this study ranged from seeing science as comprising tentative knowledge claims to seeing science as a fixed body of facts.
Ginsburg, M. B. & Arias-Godinez, B. (1984). Nonformal Education and Social Reproduction/Transformation: Educational Radio in Mexico. Comparative Education Review, 28(1), 116-127.
Abstract: A theoretical analysis of how non-formal education by radio represents a less expensive/more effective strategy for transmitting skills, knowledge, and values, increasingly likely to be adopted and directed toward adults in rural areas of developing countries. Illustrated with material from fieldwork in Huayacocotla, a village in Veracruz, Mexico.
Gunter, B. & McAleer, J. (1997). Children and Television, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Description: "Children and Television addresses the question: Does TV influence children to become more aggressive or can it encourage good behavior? This completely revised second edition provides a comprehensive review of recent literature on television's effect on children. A chapter on children's health has been added to updated ones on anti-social and good behavior, consumer behavior, educational development and the role of parents and broadcasters in influencing children's viewing. This second edition also considers the new entertainment media, such as CD-ROMs and interactive video games that are increasingly available to children of all ages.
Hall, E. R., Esty, E. T., & Fisch, S. M. (1990). Television and children's problem-solving behavior: A synopsis of an evaluation of the effects of square one TV. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 9, 161-174.
Abstract: A study was arranged in a pre/post experimental/control design, in which fifth graders in the experimental group viewed 30 half-hour telecasts of "Square One TV." Results indicated significant gains for the treatment group both in diversity of problem-solving capabilities and in measures of completeness and sophistication of mathematical solutions.
Livingstone, S. (1998). Audience Research at the Crossroads: The ‘Implied Audience’ in Media and Cultural Theory. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 1(2), 193-217.
Abstract: While audience research, particularly reception studies, has successfully furthered the diverse traditions from which it developed, there now seems to be some uncertainty about the way forward: audience research is at a crossroads. This article argues that the future agenda should not restrict itself to repeating the cultural studies 'canon' of reception research, but should strengthen external relations between audience research and other domains of media and cultural studies, challenging the 'implied audience' - the ways in which audiences are theorized outside audience theory — within the realms of political, policy, technological, economic and social theory. It is further proposed that by developing a multi-level conception of audiences that analytically links the macro and the micro, several existing problems facing reception studies - particularly concerning the nature of audience activity and resistance - may be addressed.
King, K. P. (1999). The Motion Picture in Science Education: “One Hundred Percent Efficiency.” Journal of Science Education and Technology, 8(3), 211.
Abstract: This study provides a historical overview of the development of the motion picture as a tool within the context of science education. The technology was traced from its beginning as a silent motion picture through its current manifestation in videotapes and videodiscs. The use of the technology as a teaching tool is examined in terms of the concept of scientific literacy and the means by which the motion picture helped to accomplish the goals of scientific literacy.
King, K.P. (2000). Educational Television: “Let’s Explore Science.” Journal of Science Education and Technology, 9(3), 227.
Abstract: This study provides a historical overview of the development of the instructional television as a tool within the context of science education. The technology was traced from its beginning as experiments in public service broadcasting by universities and television networks, though closed circuit, cable, and commercially produced science-related programming. The use of the technology as a teaching tool is examined in terms of the concept of scientific literacy and the means by which instructional television helped to accomplish the goals of scientific literacy.
Moeller, B. (1996). Learning from Television: A Research Review. CCT Reports Issue No. 11.
Introduction: A question of central concern to educators interested in using television for literacy education is ‘what do people learn from television’? This paper reviews existing research on learning from television in an attempt to address this question, and to assist in the planning for the development of television programming and curricula for adult literacy education.
Winsten, J. A. (1985). Science and the Media: The Boundaries of Truth. Health Affairs, 4(1).
Prologue: In the fast-paced world of journalism, science writers are a special breed: well-trained, conversant in a wide range of health and medical subjects, and prepared at a moment’s notice to translate for readers the meaning of the latest technological breakthrough. In the last year, their calls to action have been Barney Clark, Baby Fae, and, most recently, Bill Schroeder. At the same time, though, they often are viewed within their profession as the backbenchers of big-time journalism, experts ‘in the scientific arcane whose subject mutter only occasionally merits page-one attention or prime-time television coverage. What drives these journalists? What pressures are they subjected to as they strive to unravel the mysteries of science for an interested public and advance their own careers? In a landmark study, Jay Winsten, director of the Office of Health Policy Information at the Harvard School of Public Health, set out three years ago to answer these questions in an examination of how news judgments are shaped by organizational, economic, and professional incentives in the news business. He bused his findings on interviews with science reporters and editors who are regarded as the best in the business. Winsten had impeccable credentials to undertake this project. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from The Johns Hopkins University and has devoted considerable time to freelance writing for The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times. Winsten’s Office of Health Policy Information serves as a resource center for federal and state policymakers and for journalists. The next project in his research on the impact of the mass media on public understanding of science and health policy involves the development of a primer to help scientists work more effectively with science writers.
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Learning in Museums and Other Designed Environments
Allen, S. (2004). Designs for learning: Studying science museum exhibits that do more than entertain. Science Education, 88, S17-S33.
Abstract: Science museum staff face a constructivist dilemma as they design their public spaces: the exhibits should facilitate science learning, yet they also need to support a diverse visiting public in making their own personal choices about where to attend, what to do, and how to interpret their interactions. To be effective as teaching tools, exhibits need to be highly intrinsically motivating at every step of an interaction in order to sustain involvement by an audience who views their visit primarily as a leisure activity. Given these challenges, it is vital to support the design process with a strong program of research and evaluation. I give a personal perspective on one institution's research and evaluation work over the last decade, focusing on four areas: immediate apprehendability, physical interactivity, conceptual coherence, and diversity of learners.
Anderson, D., Lucas, K. B., Ginns, I. S., & Dierking, L. D. (2000). Development of knowledge about electricity and magnetism during a visit to a science museum and related post-visit activities. Science Education, 84(5), 658-679.
Abstract: This article reports on part of a larger study of how 11- and 12-year-old students construct knowledge about electricity and magnetism by drawing on aspects of their experiences during the course of a school visit to an interactive science museum and subsequent classroom activities linked to the science museum exhibits. The significance of this study is that it focuses on an aspect of school visits to informal learning centers that has been neglected by researchers in the past, namely the influence of post-visit activities in the classroom on subsequent learning and knowledge construction. This study provides evidence that the integrated series of post-visit activities resulted in students constructing and reconstructing their personal knowledge of science concepts and principles represented in the science museum exhibits, sometimes toward the accepted scientific understanding and sometimes in different and surprising ways. A descriptive interpretive approach was adopted, with principal data sources comprising student-generated concept maps and semi-structured interviews at three stages of the study. Findings demonstrate the interrelationships between learning that occurs at school, home, and in informal learning settings. The study also underscores for classroom teachers and staff of science museums and similar centers the importance of planning pre- and post-visit activities. The importance of this planning is not only to support the development of scientific conceptions, but also to detect and respond to alternative conceptions that may be produced or strengthened during a visit to an informal learning center. (Contains 24 references.)
Ash, D. (2003). Dialogic inquiry in life science conversations of family groups in a museum. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 138-162.
Abstract: This research illustrates the efficacy of a new approach for collecting and analyzing family conversational data at museums and other informal settings. This article offers a detailed examination of a small data set (three families) that informs a larger body of work that focuses on conversation as methodology. The dialogic content of this work centers on biological themes, specifically adaptation. The biological principle becomes visible when families talk about survival strategies such as breeding or protection from predators. These themes arise from both the family members and the museum exhibit. This study also analyzes the inquiry skills families use as they make sense of science content. I assume that children and adults offer different interest areas or expertise for dialogic negotiation and that family members use inquiry skills in dialogue to explore matters of importance. This analysis offers educators methodological tools for investigating families' scientific sense-making in informal settings.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Hermanson, K. (1995). Intrinsic motivation in museums: What makes a visitor want to learn? Museum News, 74(3), 34-37 + 59-61.
Dierking, L. D., Ellenbogen, K. M., & Falk, J. H. (2004). In Principle, in practice: Perspectives on a decade of museum learning research (1994-2004). Science Education, 88, S1-S3.
Abstract: Introduces the articles on museum learning research published in the July 2004 issue of "Science Education."
Eberbach, C. & Crowley, K. (2005). From living to virtual: Learning from museum objects. Curator 48(3), 317-338.
Ellenbogen, K. M., Luke, J. J., & Dierking, L. D. (2004). Family Learning Research in Museums: An Emerging Disciplinary Matrix? Science Education, 88, S48-S58.
Abstract: Thomas Kuhn's notion of a disciplinary matrix provides a useful framework for investigating the growth of research on family learning in and from museums over the last decade. To track the emergence of this disciplinary matrix we consider three issues. First are shifting theoretical perspectives that result in new shared language, beliefs, values, understandings, and assumptions about what counts as family learning. Second are realigning methodologies, driven by underlying disciplinary assumptions about how research in this arena is best conducted, what questions should be addressed, and criteria for valid and reliable evidence. Third is resituating the focus of our research to make the family central to what we study, reflecting a more holistic understanding of the family as an educational institution within larger learning infrastructure. We discuss research that exemplifies these three issues and demonstrates the ways in which shifting theoretical perspectives, realigning methodologies, and resituating research foci signal the existence of a nascent disciplinary matrix.
Falk, J. (2004). The Director's cut: Toward an improved understanding of learning from museums. Science Education, 88, S83-S96.
Abstract: This paper presents two perspectives that the author believes will contribute to an enhanced ability to describe and understand learning from museums. Arguably, a major strength of the past decade of research on learning from museums has been the description and investigation of many of the myriad factors that appear to influence learning from museums. However, though we now understand the factors, we do not yet know how to consider them holistically. We do not conduct research as if all these variables were important. In addition, we have not sufficiently incorporated scope and scale into our research models. Specifically, we have attempted to study an individual or group learning from a museum within the delimited physical scope and time scale of the actual museum visit instead of viewing what happens within the museum as being a small part of a much larger whole. Situating learning from museums within an enlarged scope and scale are not just abstract niceties; they are fundamental to validly determining what is or is not learned from a museum experience. Examples supporting the importance of these perspectives are presented.
Falk, J. H. (1997). Testing a museum exhibition design assumption: Effect of explicit labeling of exhibit clusters on visitor concept development. Science Education, 81(6), 679.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate a museum exhibition design assumption that visitors develop conceptual understanding of a science topic after utilizing a cluster of conceptually related exhibits which lack explicit concept labeling; also investigated was whether visitor concept development could be enhanced through the addition of explicit labeling about the intended conceptual messages. Two very different clusters of exhibits were selected for investigation: how transportation in Los Angeles affects air pollution (Transportation) and the conception and early development of vertebrates (Eggciting Beginnings). The two exhibition clusters were assessed under two treatments - with and without explicit labeling informing visitors of the intended conceptual messages. Visitors demonstrated statistically significant concept development, as measured by changes in pre- to posttest scores, in the Transportation cluster under both treatment conditions (with and without explicit labeling), but in the Eggciting Beginnings cluster only under the explicit labeling condition. When data from both sets of exhibit clusters were pooled, visitors evidenced significant concept development in all conditions. The findings from this study support the contention that visitors can, and do acquire both factual and conceptual information as a consequence of relatively brief interactions (on the order of 2-5 minutes) with clusters of related science exhibits; and this learning can be facilitated by explicitly and repeatedly displaying the conceptual messages to be communicated.
Falk, J. H. & Adelman, L. M. (2003). Investigating the impact of prior knowledge and interest on aquarium visitor learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 163-176.
Abstract: Most free-choice science learning institutions, in particular science centers, zoos, aquariums, and natural history museums, define themselves as educational institutions. However, to what extent, and for which visitors, do these free-choice learning settings accomplish their educational mission? Answering this question has proven challenging, in large part because of the inherent variability of visitors to such settings. We hypothesize that the challenges of measuring free-choice science learning might be diminished if it were possible to pool populations during analysis in ways that reduced this variability. Specifically, we propose grouping learners according to their entering understanding and attitudes, using qualitative categories such as minimal, moderate, and extensive. In this article, we use data collected at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to determine whether grouping makes it possible to discern more readily the nature of changes in aquarium visitors' conservation knowledge and attitudes, Although analysis revealed that there were significant changes in both conservation knowledge and attitudes, entry to exit, for all 100 visitors studied, a more detailed analysis revealed that gains were not evenly distributed across all visitors. The results support the hypothesis that the grouping of learners into minimal, moderate, and extensive conservation knowledge and attitude categories enabled a more fine-grained and accurate understanding of changes in aquarium visitors' conservation learning.
Falk, J. H. & Balling, J. D. (1982). The Field trip milieu: Learning and behavior as a function of contextual events. Journal of Educational Research, 76(1), 22-28.
Abstract: The impact of a field trip on the attitudes, behavior, and learning of 196 third- and fifth-grade students was assessed. Third grade students seemed overwhelmed by the field trip and learned more from an outdoor science activity near their school. Fifth grade students were stimulated by the trip and bored by the outdoor lesson.
Falk, J. H. & Dierking, L. D. (1992). The Museum experience. Washington, DC: Whaleback Books.
Description: Falk and Dierking review and synthesize several modern learning theories and research from science centers, zoos, and museums around the globe, and integrate findings from their own original research to give a thorough introduction to what is known about why people go to museums, what people do at museums, what people learn at museums, etc. It also offers recommendations and guidelines to help museum staff understand their clientele and their interactions with them. The authors intended for the book to be provocative and to encourage discussion and debate. Falk and Dierking suggest using the term “free choice learning” as an alternative to using the phrase “informal learning”. The authors provide a new model for understanding and framing the museum experience, called the Interactive Experience Model, which connects personal, sociocultural, and physical contexts together. Falk and Dierking discuss the associative, object-based learning that takes place in museums; provide concrete examples; and relate this kind of learning to the sometimes-formal characteristics of exhibitions themselves. They then suggest that museums need to rethink how they plan exhibits, publicize and promote museums and exhibits, and, especially, how museums orient visitors.
Falk, J. H., Moussouri, T., & Coulson, D. (1998). The effect of visitors' agendas on museum learning. Curator, 41(2), 106-120.
Abstract: This study directly tests the effects of different museum-visit agendas on visitor learning. Two tools were used, a tool for measuring visitor motivations and Personal Meaning Mapping (PMM), a constructivist approach that measures visitor learning. Individuals who strongly desired both an educational and an entertaining experience learned more than those focusing on education or entertainment alone. Contains 23 references.
Gelman, R., Massey, C. M., & McManus, M. (1991). Characterizing supporting environments for cognitive development: Lessons from children in a museum. In L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine, & S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 226-256). Washington, DC: APA.
Hein, G. E. (1998). Learning in the Museum. London: Routledge.
Description: “Learning in the Museum” confronts the educational role which museums can have and shows how research in visitor studies and the philosophy of education can be applied to facilitate a meaningful educational experience in museums. The book contains a brief history of education in public museums, and goes on to examine how the educational theories of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky relate to learning in the museum. A survey of the wide range of research methods employed in visitor studies is illustrated with examples taken from museums around the world. George E. Hein concludes that visitors best learn when knowledge is actively constructed in their own minds, and provides a model of the "constructivist museum"--one with exhibitions which are physically, socially, and intellectually accessible to every single visitor.
Leinhardt, G., Crowley, K., & Knutson, K. (2002). Learning conversations in museums. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Description: People learn in museums by talking to each other. With meticulously documented audience research, this title discusses how museum conversations can reflect and change a visitor's viewpoint, discipline-specific knowledge, and engagement with the institution. It also examines what knowledge people retain over long and short periods of time. Appropriate for museum educators as well as anyone interested in informal learning environments.
Leinhardt, G. & Knutson, K. (2004 ). Learning environment. In Listening in on museum conversations. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
Rennie, L. & Johnston, D. J. (2004). The nature of learning and its implications for research on learning from museums. Science Education, 88, S4-S16.
Abstract: The last decade has brought considerable progress in our understanding of how institutions like museums affect people's lives. However, there is still a great deal we do not know, and the research challenges ahead sometimes appear quite daunting. In this paper, we suggest that three characteristics of learning, its personal nature, that it is contextualized, and that it takes time, are critical to understanding and investigating the impact that museums have on people's lives. These characteristics have long been recognized, and we believe that recent research has emphasized their importance, but they are yet to be consistently well addressed in research. In the paper, each characteristic is elaborated and its implications for research examined. In particular, we argue that a search for a wider range of learning outcomes, the use of a wider range of research methods, and a greater consideration for, and recognition of, the significance of time are the principles for the future research agenda.
Schauble, L. & Bartlett, K. (1997). Constructing a science gallery for children and families: The role of research in an innovative design process. Science Education, 81(6), 781.
Abstract: We describe the role of research in designing ScienceWorks, an innovative gallery at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The gallery, intended for 6-10-year-old children and their families, was constructed on the basis of existing and new research concerning how children think and learn about science. The gallery is atypical in several respects, but perhaps most fundamentally in its overarching agenda, to foster children's understanding. Each major component in the gallery contains a broad array of activities to support learning for casual visitors, but also includes opportunities for successively deeper levels of learning and engagement. Existing research on science learning was reviewed to develop the theoretical framework that guided the design process. Moreover, research informed the development of each of the major gallery components and its associated learning activities. Current ongoing research focuses on identifying effective forms of mediation in the gallery, which is more accurately conceived as a collection of tools for supporting children's learning at various levels of engagement, than as a series of stand-alone exhibits.
Stevens, R. & Hall, R. (1997). Seeing tornado: How video traces mediate visitor understandings of (Natural?) Phenomena in a science museum. Science Education, 81(6), 735.
Abstract: This article reports an exploratory study of how people see and explain a prominent exhibit (Tornado) at an interactive science museum (the Exploratorium). Our data was assembled using a novel, technically mediated activity system (Video Traces) that allowed visitors to reflect with an interviewer on video records of their own visits to the exhibit. We present qualitative data comparing initial visits to the exhibit with those in the Video Traces environment to argue that Video Traces offers a promising means of exploring visitors' current understandings of exhibit phenomena, as well as mediating new understandings of these phenomena. We illustrate this argument with two vignettes drawn from our data that show the flexibility of Video Traces for supporting different forms of inquiry. Finally, we discuss how an expanded Video Traces system could provide ongoing opportunities for representation and inquiry at interactive science centers.
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The Nature of Learning
Anderson, D., Lucas, K. B., & Ginns, I. S. (2003). Theoretical perspectives on learning in an informal setting. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 177-199.
Abstract: Research into learning in informal settings such as museums has been in a formative state during the past decade, and much of that research has been descriptive and lacking a theory base. In this article, it is proposed that the human constructivist view of learning can guide research and assist the interpretation of research data because it recognizes an individual's prior knowledge and active involvement in knowledge construction during a museum visit. This proposal is supported by reference to the findings of a previously reported interpretive case study, which included concept mapping and semi-structured interviews, of the knowledge transformations of three Year 7 students who had participated in a class visit to a science museum and associated post-visit activities. The findings from that study are shown in this report to be consistent with the human constructivist view of learning in that for all three students, learning was found to be at times incremental and at other times to involve substantial restructuring of knowledge. Thus, we regard that the human constructivist view of learning has much merit and utility for researchers investigating the development of knowledge and understanding emergent from experiences in informal settings. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for teachers and staff of museums and similar institutions are also discussed.
Bang, M., Townsend, J., Unsworth, S., & Medin, D. (2005). Cultural models of nature and their relevance to science education. Northwestern University.
Bransford, J., Barron, B., Pea, R., Meltzoff, A., Kuhl, P., Bell, P., et al. (2006). Foundations and opportunities for an interdisciplinary science of learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Description: In this chapter, we argue that the learning sciences are poised for a “decade of synergy.” We focus on several key traditions of theory and research with the potential for mutually influencing one another in ways that can transform how we think about the science of learning, as well as how future educators and scientists are trained.
Bransford, J., Vye, N., Stevens, R., Kuhl, P., Schwartz, D., Bell, P., et al. (2005). Learning theories and education: Toward a decade of synergy. In P. Alexander & P. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cole, P. R. (1998). More on Dewey: Thoughts on Ted Ansbacher's paradigm. Curator, 41(2), 78-80.
Costa, V. B. (1995). When science is "another world": Relationships between worlds of family, friends, school, and science. Science Education, 79: 313-333.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is twofold: to describe a model for understanding how students' responses to science are related to the degree of congruency between their worlds of family, friends, school, and science; and to explore the implications of this model for practice and policy in science education. The study focuses on the meaning-perspectives of students to understand how they differentially experience school science. On the basis of classroom observations, teacher recommendation, and students' willingness, 43 high school science students were interviewed to gain information on their perceptions of school and science, the importance and influence of friends on these perceptions, and family conditions that were significant to their lives. Through the identification of five distinctive patterns regarding the relationship between personal experiences and success in school and science, this study draws attention to the necessity of curriculum and school practices that facilitate the integration of students' multiple worlds.
Dunbar K, Fugelsang, J, & Stein. (In Press). Do naïve theories ever go away? Using brain and behavior to understand changes in concepts. In P. Shah and M. Lovetts (Eds.), Thinking about data. Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum.
Dunbar, K. & Blanchette, I. (2001). The in vivo/in vitro approach to cognition: The case of analogy. Trends in Cognitive Science 5(8), 335-339.
Abstract: A new way of investigating cognition is proposed that combines naturalistic (in vivo) and experimental (in vitro) methods into a single approach. Investigating analogical reasoning by scientists ‘live’ at laboratory meetings (in vivo) we found that the types of analogies they use change with their goals. Unlike subjects in many cognitive ‘reminding’ experiments, scientists frequently used structural similarities in their analogies, as opposed to superficial similarities. By subsequently using the in vitro approach, we found that the use of structural information was associated with being asked to generate analogies and with the use of complex scenarios. Similar results are obtained in other areas of reasoning such as hypothesis testing and causal reasoning.
Dunbar, K. & Fugelsang, J. (2005). Scientific thinking and reasoning. In K. Holyoak and R. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, E. M., Mull, M. S., & Poling, D. A. (2002). The Authentic Object? A Child's Eye-View. In S. G. Paris (Ed.), Perspectives on Object-Centered Learning in Museums (pp. 55-77). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Forman, E., & Sink, W. (2006). Sociocultural approaches to learning science in classrooms (Commissioned Paper). Pittsburgh: Department of Instruction and Learning, University of Pittsburgh.
Introduction: This paper will review literature on learning science in K-8 classrooms by asking and answering three major questions: Who learns science in classrooms? How is science learned in classrooms? What science is learned in classrooms? These questions will be addressed from a sociocultural perspective, which means that the unit of analysis (both theoretically and methodologically) should include both the individual and the social world. Thus, the proposed connections between causes and outcomes must include contextual as well as psychological factors.
Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge.
Description: In this major new book, James Gee tackles the 'big ideas' about language, literacy and learning, applying his findings to real problems facing educationalists today. He tackles controversial debates such as the New Literacy Studies, and the idea that the academic language required to study, for example, Mathematics and the Sciences, is exclusionary and places unfair demands on poor and minority students. Gee also explores learning outside the classroom, looking at computer and video games and comparing the way a child interacts with others and technology to learn and play, with school-based learning in science classrooms. Bringing together the latest research from a number of disciplines, Language, Literacy and Learning is a bold, ambitious book by a leading figure in the field. It is essential reading for anyone interested in education and language.
Guberman, S., Rahm, J., & Menk, D. (1998). Transforming cultural practices: Illustrations from children's game play. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 29(4), 419-445.
Abstract: Analyses of children's participation in cultural practices typically focus on the ways in which dimensions of activities shape the nature of children's participation and learning. In contrast, our concern in this article is to understand how children, in their participation, transform cultural practices. We use Saxe's (1991) emergent goals framework to illustrate how the mathematical problems that emerge in children's play of Monopoly are interwoven with children's developing competencies and social interactions.
Guberman, S., & Saxe, G. B. (2000). Mathematical problems and goals in children's play of an educational game. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 7(3), 201-216.
Abstract: In his development of activity theory, Leontiev explained that the emergence of divisions of labor in society necessarily leads to collaborative activity in which individuals, with their own goals and actions, contribute to collective achievements. In this article, we describe emergent “divisions of labor” that are common in children’s collective problem solving. Parallel to Leontiev’s argument, we show that when labor becomes divided, children often become engaged in accomplishing different goals leading to different learning outcomes. We illustrate the utility of this analytic tack in analyses of 64 third and fourth graders playing an educational game, Treasure Hunt.
Gutierrez, K. D. & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher 32(5), 19-25.
Abstract: This article addresses a challenge faced by those who study cultural variation in approaches to learning: how to characterize regularities of individuals’ approaches according to their cultural background. We argue against the common approach of assuming that regularities are static, and that general traits of individuals are attributable categorically to ethnic group membership. We suggest that a cultural historical approach can be used to help move beyond this assumption by focusing researchers’ and practitioners’ attention on variations in individuals’ and groups’ histories of engagement in cultural practices because the variations reside not as traits of individuals or collections of individuals, but as proclivities of people with certain histories of engagement with specific cultural activities. Thus, individuals’ and groups’ experience in activities—not their traits—becomes the focus. Also, we note that cultural-historical work needs to devote more attention to researching regularities in the variations among cultural communities in order to bring these ideas to fruition.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cultural Cognition. In Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Description: Provides an account of how anthropological methods can be combined with cognitive theory in studies of cognition. Drawing comparisons with navigation, it argues that cultural systems have cognitive properties of their own that differ from the cognitive properties of the individuals within them.
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition. (1978). Cognition as a Residual Category in Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 7, pp. 51-69.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lemke, J. L. (2000). Across the Scales of Time: Artifacts, Activities, and Meanings in Ecosocial Systems. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 7(4), 273-290.
Miller, J. (2004). Public understanding of and attitudes toward scientific research: What we know and what we need to know. Public Understanding of Science, 13(3), 273-294.
Abstract: Over the last four decades, a substantial body of national survey material has been collected in the US concerning the public understanding of science and technology. Using this body of research, this analysis outlines the major trends from 1957 to 1999 and discusses their implications for public understanding of, and attitudes toward, scientific research. The analysis found that although the rate of civic scientific literacy in the US is only now approaching 20 percent, there is a strong and continuing public belief in the value of scientific research for economic prosperity and for the quality of life. Even though there are some continuing reservations about the pace of change engendered by science and technology and the relationship between science and faith, the public consistently reconciles these differing perceptions in favor of science.
Paris, S. G. (1997). Situated motivation and informal learning. Journal of Museum Education, 22(2), 22-26.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The Cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford.
Description: The book examines classic aspects of development afresh from a cultural angle--childrearing, social relations, interdependence and autonomy, developmental transitions across the lifespan, gender roles, attachment, and learning and cognitive development.
Schreiner, C. (2006). Exploring a ROSE-garden: Norwegian youth's orientations towards science - seen as signs of late modern identities. Unpublished Doctoral, University of Oslo.
Abstract: The thesis is based on the view that science teaching must build on an understanding of the students' culture, priorities and concerns. The empirical material is collected through the ROSE project. ROSE (The Relevance of Science Education) is a comparative project meant to shed light on affective factors of importance to the learning of science and technology. The target population is students towards the end of lower secondary school (age 15). The research instrument was developed in cooperation with an international group of science educators. The resulting instrument was a questionnaire, mostly consisting of closed questions addressing the students' interests, attitudes, plans, views on the environmental challenges, etc. This thesis uses data from more than 26 000 students in 25 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. The research aims were to develop a student typology based on the Norwegian data, to characterize the student types' orientations towards science, and to study Norwegian youth's interests against a background of students from less modernized countries. The results are discussed in the light of sociological theories on youth in late modern societies, especially by drawing on perspectives on the late modern project of identity construction. The data analysis applies multivariate methods, and has an explorative and data-driven approach: The next step of the analysis has been successively adjusted according to the results from the previous step. The results can be summarized under three main conclusions: 1) Norwegian students can be divided into five student types with distinct orientations towards science. 2) Students' interests in science are sex-specific. 3) There are characteristic cross-national patterns in youth's interests that follow a modern–traditional divide. The underlying purpose of the research is to promote a science education that aims to empower students to make a better world, and make students see themselves as actors, not onlookers. The last section discusses how sociological perspectives on modern youth can inform the area of science education and how science teachers can use the youth culture as a teaching resource for making the students more actively engaged.
Scribner, S., & Cole, M. (1973). Cognitive consequences of formal and informal education. Science, 182(9), 553-559.
Abstract: Discusses the cognitive consequences of education, and reviews evidence which supports the hypothesis that differences in the social organization of education promote differences in the organization of learning and thinking skills in the individual. Proposes that new accommodations are needed between school-based learning and learning experiences of everyday life.
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Everyday Learning and Families
Callanan, M. A. & Jipson, J. L. (2001). Explanatory conversations and young children's developing scientific literacy. In K. Crowley, C. Schunn & T. Okada (Eds.), Designing for Science: Implications from Everyday, Classroom and Professional Settings (pp. 21-49). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Abstract (from the chapter): This chapter focuses on the elements that need to be considered when designing programs for science learning. Children develop "scientific literacy" as they begin to learn the language of science (e.g., concepts such as "gravity" or "metamorphosis"), the kinds of causal explanations that are used in scientific theories (e.g., the day-night cycle results from the rotation of the earth), and the kinds of procedures that are used to answer scientific questions (e.g., testing hypotheses, controlling variables). A model of how explanatory conversations may impact children's learning is beginning to be formulated. Parents are not often guiding children directly toward reflective, abstract understandings of science, but by focusing on particular events of interest in the moment they may be giving children fragments of information that allow them to build up coherent understandings of particular events.
Callanan, M. A., Shrager, J., & Moore, J. L. (1995). Parent-child collaborative explanations: methods of identification and analysis. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1), 105-129.
Abstract: In this article we describe methods for observing, identifying, and analyzing explanations as they arise in everyday discourse between young children and their parents. By studying these explanations, our research addresses two questions about children's developing understanding of the world: (a) How do children develop skill in producing and understanding explanations in conversation? and (b) How do children use these skills to learn about causal events in the world? Our aims in this article are to describe the methodological challenges we face in this research, to discuss ways that we have tried to meet those challenges, and to provide some examples of the conclusions we have been able to draw using this methodology.
Crowley, K., Callanan, M. A., Jipson, J. L., Galco, J., Topping, K., Shrager, J., et al. (2001). Shared scientific thinking in everyday parent-child activity. Science Education, 85(6), 712.
Abstract: Current accounts of the development of scientific reasoning focus on individual children’s ability to coordinate the collection and evaluation of evidence with the creation of theories to explain the evidence. This observational study of parent–child interactions in a children’s museum demonstrated that parents shape and support children’s scientific thinking in everyday, nonobligatory activity. When children engaged an exhibit with parents, their exploration of evidence was observed to be longer, broader, and more focused on relevant comparisons than children who engaged the exhibit without their parents. Parents were observed to talk to children about how to select and encode appropriate evidence and how to make direct comparisons between the most informative kinds of evidence. Parents also sometimes assumed the role of explainer by casting children’s experience in causal terms, connecting the experience to prior knowledge, or introducing abstract principles. We discuss these findings with respect to two dimensions of children’s scientific thinking: developments in evidence collection and developments in theory construction.
Crowley, K., & Galco, J. (2001). Everyday activity and the development of scientific thinking. In K. Crowley, C. Schunn & T. Okada (Eds.), Designing for science: Implications from everyday, classroom and professional settings (pp. 333-356). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Crowley, K. & Jacobs, M. (2002). Building islands of expertise and the development of family scientific literacy. In G. Leinhardt, K. Crowley & K. Knutson (Eds.), Learning conversations in museums (pp. 333-356). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Dierking, L. D. & Falk, J. H. (1994). Family behavior and learning in informal science settings: A review of the research. Science Education, 78(1), 57.
Abstract: Reviews the following topics: (1) family group interactions, time allocation, and agendas in informal science settings; and (2) family learning in informal science settings. Contains an extensive list of implications for informal science setting practitioners and provides insights to researchers attempting to study science learning in more formal settings. (62 references)
Hall, R., & Schaverien, L. (2001). Families' Engagement with Young Children's Science and Technology Learning at Home. Science Education, 85, 454-481.
Abstract: There is accumulating evidence of the worth of involving families in young children's learning in informal contexts. By exploring families' engagement with their children's science and technology learning at home over a 6-month period, the present investigation sought to illuminate both the nature and the educational significance of what families do. Initially, in order to seed scientific and technological inquiry in homes, kindergarten and year-one children investigated flashlights with family members at school. Each day, equipment was available to take home. Using established anthropological methods, one of the researchers investigated children's further inquiries beyond the classroom in diverse ways; for example, by visiting homes and conversing via telephone and facsimile. The findings showed that families engaged with children's inquiries at home in many ways - by providing resources, conversing, and investigating collaboratively with children. Moreover, when families pursued inquiries together and when children conducted their own sustained intellectual searches, children's ideas deepened. Such evidence of the educational significance of what families do suggests that early science and technology education might be made more effective if it were aligned with the ways people learn together outside formal institutions.
Jipson, J. L. & Callanan, M. A. (2003). Mother-child conversation and children's understanding of biological and nonbiological changes in size. Child Development, 74(2), 629-644.
Abstract: This article explores the ways that mothers and children from primarily middle-income European American backgrounds reason about events in which biological and non-biological objects change in size. In Study 1, mother–child conversations were examined to investigate the events mothers described as growth, as well as the ways mothers explained events occurring in different domains. Findings indicate that although mothers primarily discussed events in domain-specific ways, they exhibited some domain blurring in their talk to children. In Study 2, 3-year-old children (M=3 years, 2 months) and 5-year-old children (M=5 years) provided descriptions and explanations of the same events. Results suggest that preschool children have begun to develop domain-specific understandings. Results are discussed in light of the role that social interaction plays in children's conceptual development.
Livingstone, D. W. (2000). Researching expanded notions of learning and work and underemployment: Findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. International Review of Education, 46(6), 491-514.
Abstract: The paper offers an analysis of the results of the first country-wide survey of the informal learning practices of adults in Canada, conducted in 1998. The survey was based on expanded conceptions of both learning (including informal learning and continuing education as well as schooling) and work (including community volunteer work and housework as well as paid employment). Respondents were found to be devoting unprecedented amounts of time to learning activities, including an average of 15 hours per week in informal learning projects. The patterns and interrelations of all of these dimensions of work and learning are summarized. Multiple dimensions of the underemployment of achieved learning in paid employment are briefly identified. The existence of widespread underemployment suggests that we are living in a knowledge society but not yet in a knowledge-based economy. The paper concludes with possible implications of the empirical research findings using these expanded conceptions of learning and work for policy and program initiatives.
Solomon, J. (2003). Home-school learning of science: The culture of homes, and pupils' difficult border crossing. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 219-233.
Abstract: A British project that explored the way parents and their children of elementary school age carried out simple science activities at home is described and illustrated. Previous research in this field has yielded ambiguous results when evaluated in terms of school science knowledge gained. The basis of the analysis carried out here is largely descriptive using some sociological theory to understand activities in the home. It is argued that home is a special place not only rich in supportive emotions, but also imbued with idiosyncratic attitudes toward science education, which often match with attitudes toward other matters. Schools create different and more uniform cultures for the same children. There has been a long history of calls for collaboration between the two constituencies; however, this article demonstrates that a number of these differences exist which cannot fail to affect children's learning in each situation. Extracts from the children's conversations with their parents during the investigations as well as parents' interpretations of what they are doing will be presented. These vignettes illustrate a wide variation in attitude which affects the children as they daily boundaries from one culture to another, trying to preserve what is precious in their home culture. At home the children's participation becomes far more relaxed and personal, just as discussion with their parents is more fluent than at school.
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