We used meta-analysis to review 55 evaluations of the effects of mentoring programs on youth. Overall, findings provide evidence of only a modest or small benefit of program participation for the average youth. Program effects are enhanced significantly, however, when greater numbers of both theory-based and empirically based "best practices" are utilized and when strong relationships are formed between mentors and youth. Youth from backgrounds of environmental risk and disadvantage appear most likely to benefit from participation in mentoring programs. Outcomes for youth at-risk due to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
David DuBoisBruce HollowayJeffrey ValentineHarris Cooper
This report provides a critical overview of impact evaluation in the museums, archives and libraries sector. The study, funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, consisted largely of a review of the literature published during a five year retrospective period, with a particular emphasis on impact evaluations conducted within the UK. An advisory group, representing all three domains, was also established. The methodologies used in, and the evidence obtained from, these evaluation studies are discussed critically within the broad context of social, learning and
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Caroline WavellGraeme BaxterIan JohnsonDorothy Williams
This article discusses a Visitor-Center Evaluation Hierarchy that illustrates the relationships between evaluation needs and various methodologies that, in turn, yield a variety of visitor data important to educators, marketers, evaluators, administrators, and program funders. It includes discussions about the utility of the hierarchy, implications of data gathering at each level, issues related to measurement and sampling, and a list of resources for further discovery.
There is no single right way to learn things, and no single place or even moment in which we learn. All learning happens continuously, from many different sources, and in many different ways. There are three main educational sectors, the formal education sector of schools and universities, the workplace, and the free-choice learning sector. Of the three, the most frequently over-looked is the free-choice learning sector. The free-choice learning sector includes museums, television, radio, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, books, parks, community organizations of all types: youth, adult
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Institute for Learning InnovationJohn H Falk
What do people learn from visiting museums and how do they learn it? The editors approach this question by focusing on conversations as both the process and the outcome of museum learning. People do not come to museums to talk, but they often do talk. This talk can drift from discussions of managing the visit, to remembrances of family members and friends not present, to close analyses of particular objects or displays. This volume explores how these conversations reflect and change a visitor's identity, discipline-specific knowledge, and engagement with an informal learning environment that
Lessons Without Limit is not just another book about school reform but a highly readable guide to transforming the entire experience of learning across a lifetime. Free-choice learning is all about what you choose to do in your learning time. We learn every day at home, at school, at work, and out in the world, from books, in museums, watching television, hearing a symphony, building a model rocket. Our motivations and expectations change over our lifetime but learning never stops. This book will give you a new understanding of the learning process and guide you in maximizing your lifelong
Design It! Building Design Challenges in After School Programs, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a collaboration between the Education Development Center (EDC), the National Institute for Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and science centers/museums and after school programs located in community-based organizations (CBOs) in six cities. The project's primary goal was to improve the quality of programming in after school programs by establishing long term relationships between science centers/museums and after school programs and developing, incorporating and institutionalizing hands-on
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Patricia CampbellEducation Development CenterLesley PerlmanEarl Hadley
This guiding question for this evaluation conducted by ILI was to measure the long term impact of the NYHS SCL program on its participants. The SCL participants also known as Explainers are high school and college students who are paid employees for NYHS. Focus was on knowledge development and skill development specifically critical thinking, and problem solving and transfer of those skills to everyday life. The evaluation also attempted to gauge SCL graduates' perception of science and scientists, influence of the program on career planning, leisure time choices with respect to lifelong
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Martin StorksdieckNew York Hall of ScienceKate Haley-GoldmanMika Cohen Jones
The goal of this Planning Grant is to use program theory as a tool in two informal science education communities and compare the processes and models that result. Program theory is built on the principle that learning and social behavioral change is the result of the cumulative effect of multiple programs, rather than a single experience. The participating communities are the Tucson Association of Museums (TAM) and the Terrific Resources for Environmental Education (TREE) organization in Columbus, Ohio. Each organization will work collaboratively using cross-group program theory and logic modeling to initiate a discussion on program planning and an intra-group evaluation. It is anticipated that this project will result in collaborations between the Tucson and Ohio informal science education communities and the creation of a plan for evaluation of the processes involved with this work.
The Informal Science Education Program of the National Science foundation will provide $320,000 in partial support of "Research in Learning in Museums Project." This will be the NSF contribution to a four federal agency effort to collaboratively support a major research project on learning in museums. As the result of an RFP developed by representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), an award was made to the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. It was agreed by the four agencies that the IMLS would be the coordinating agency of this award since they represent all museum regardless of subject, content, or type of audience.
Parent Partners in School Science (PPSS) is a partnership project between The Franklin Institute and the Philadelphia School District. This is a three and one-half year program which will provide a pivotal role for the informal science learning center to be a facilitator in parental support of K-4 school instruction in science. The PPSS program will involve teachers, families and children in grades K-2 the first year, grades 1-3 the next, and finally grades 2-4 in the third year. The incorporation of the national science standards and working with Home and School Associations (HSA) in the area schools, the program will impact over 3600 children, 5400 parents and 45 educators participating over the life of the project. There are several goals and elements in the program. This will certainly demonstrate how an informal science center supports learning and it is also hoped to become a model for effective parent-teacher and parent-child collaboration to support learning. There will be Exploration Cards developed, which are at-home schince challenges for families, Discovery Days that are museum-based days of science inquiry using the yearly theme, Parent/Teacher Workshops at the museum, and finally a Science Celebration which is a showcase of participants' year-long achievements via an exhibit to be displayed at The Franklin Institute for a month, then traveling the exhibit to participating schools. The project's structure, disseminination acitivites and products are designed for national application and as a model for use in both formal and informal education communities. It is hoped the program will offer new opportunities for science center methology and pratice to provide direct support for the school agenda in science.