In 1994, the Exploratorium launched the Framework project, a model initiative to demonstrate the vital role science museum exhibits could play in supporting science education reform. This publication offers an overview of the Framework project and discusses its assumptions, challenges, questions, and diverse perspectives. It is intended to help expand the dialogue about science education reform and how informal science museums and science centers can play an appropriate and productive role.
This article reports on an investigation of African American families' perceptions and experiences in an after-school family-school involvement program at two inner-city schools. Centered in the sphere of sociocultural theory and situated cognition, this study focuses on family-child relationships to improve children's literacy using oral histories and technology. It also explores a model for preparing preservice teachers to work with families. Families indicated that prior to program implementation, they had received bureaucratic invitations of school involvement and empathized with other
Informal environments—or out-of-school-time (OST) settings—play an important role in promoting science learning for preK–12 students and beyond. The learning experiences delivered by parents, friends, and educators in informal environments can spark student interest in science and provide opportunities to broaden and deepen students’ engagement; reinforce scientific concepts and practices introduced during the school day; and promote an appreciation for and interest in the pursuit of science in school and in daily life. NSTA recommends strengthening informal learning opportunities for all preK
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National Science Teachers Association
Current empirical research in science and technology studies provides new and different views of science and scientists that contrast markedly with the mythical views that underlie many curricular efforts geared toward increasing scientific literacy. If descriptions of science and scientists that emerge from science and technology studies are legitimate, considerable implications arise for educational aims guiding science instruction, learning experiences directed toward those educational aims, and resources that support those learning experiences and educational aims. In this paper, we (a)
This chapter draws attention to the self-regulatory skills that students use in informal learning settings. Formal and informal learning settings are defined as complementary learning environments and it is pointed out that students differ with respect to the learning environments they find conducive to learning. It is suggested that the goals students set for themselves when learning in an informal learning context are different from the goals they set for themselves in a formal learning context. Furthermore, it is speculated that students attend to different clues and select different self
This paper begins by questioning the narrow definition of learning used in much present writing concerning lifelong learning, which tends to focus on the purported economic and societal benefits of prolonging and widening participation in formal education and training programmes. In contrast, much valuable and non-trivial learning already goes on, and has always gone on, outside formal programmes of instruction. This is true both at work and at leisure. Using evidence from a study of patterns of participation in adult learning in South Wales from 1900, the paper argues that if such informal
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Cardiff UniversityStephen GorardRalph FevreGareth Rees
This article from Daedalus explores the question (framed by an American Association of Museums AAM publication) of how museums can help to nurture an informed citizenry and address the challenges and opportunity of a global society.
This article examines wayfinding in museums: what is it, how do museums accomplish it, and how happy are museums with their wayfinding programs and handout maps. The article includes findings from a 1995-1996 study of 41 village museums across America based on a 38-part questionnaire.
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Dennis O'BrienVisitor Studies Association
This article examines the effect of one government policy, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), on museums (and other institutions as defined broadly by AAM). The article discusses how the increased emphasis on outcome evaluation in GPRA, and from funders in general, will be passed on to grantees, and how they need to respond.
Children often learn new problem-solving strategies by observing examples of other people's problem-solving. When children learn a new strategy through observation and also explain the new strategy to themselves, they generalize the strategy more widely than children who learn a new strategy but do not explain. We tested three hypothesized mechanisms through which explanations might facilitate strategy generalization: more accurate recall of the new strategy's procedures; increased selection of the new strategy over competing strategies; or more effective management of the new strategy's goal
It has long been recognized, but rarely publicly acknowledged, that most people learn much if not most of what they know outside of the formal education system. As Patricia Albjerg Graham recently wrote in Daedalus, "Scholars ranging from the late James S. Coleman and Lawrence A. Cremin to Christopher Jencks have quite properly reminded us of the limited role that schools play in children's education." A vast educational infrastructure exists to support public learning, both inside and outside the workplace. Leisure opportunities for learning are particularly rich. Museums, along with print
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Institute for Learning InnovationJohn H Falk