This article presents a metalogue discussion about the two focus articles and the six associated review essays on the topic of conceptual change as it applies to research, and science teaching and learning in a museum setting. Through the lenses of a sociocultural perspective of learning we examine the applicability of the ideas presented in the forum for museums and museum educators. First we reflect on the role that emotions can play in concept development; second, we reflect on the role of language, talk, and gestures to concept development and conceptual change in the short-lived nature of
Global changes such as urbanisation, new ways of travelling, new information and communication technologies are causing radical changes in the relationships between human beings and the environment we are both a part of and depend on. Relationships which – according to a multiplicity of researches in various fields – are crucially important. Science education and the language of science risk exacerbating a tendency towards objectifying nature and inhabiting a virtual reality, thereby rendering ever more tenuous the dialogue between people and the natural world. This article examines two
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Martin DodmanElena CaminoGiuseppe Barbiero
The article discusses how a visit to a science museum illustrates the concept of informal learning in science education. The author describes a visit to a museum with science educator Jim Kisiel, who comments on how the behavior of museum guests is used to design exhibits. Kisiel discusses the importance of visually interesting displays and the role of signage in educating museum guests. The author suggests that similar concepts apply to science education in the classroom.
This research examines the impact of related classroom activities on fourth grade students' science learning from a school field trip. The current study draws upon research in psychology and education to create an intervention that is designed to enhance what students learn from school science field trips. The intervention comprises a set of activities that include 1) orientation to context, 2) discussion, 3) use of field notebooks, and 4) post-visit discussion of what was learned. The effects of the intervention are examined by comparing two groups of students: an intervention group which
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Journal of Museum EducationMarilyn Petty GlickAla Samarapungavan
This article offers findings from a learning sciences-informed evaluation of a nanoscience and nanotechnology exhibition called Nano-Aventura (NanoAdventure), based on four interactive-collaborative games and two narrated videos. This traveling exhibition was developed in Brazil by the Museu Exploratório de Ciências for children and teenagers (ages 9 to 14), but it was also open to the general public. We report findings from a mixed-methods study incorporating questionnaires completed by visiting school children (n=814) and the general public (n=338) and interviews with school visitors (n=23)
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Museu Exploratorio de CienciasSandra MurrielloMarcelo Knobel
Design-Based Research (DBR) has been a tool of the learning sciences since the early 1990s, used as a way to improve and study learning environments. Using an iterative process of design with the goal of refining theories of learning, researchers and educators now use DBR seek to identify how to make a learning environment work. They then draw theories from the research findings that can be shared with a larger community. In this way, knowledge of design principles accumulates within a community for the improvement of learning outcomes. With few exceptions, including some after-school clubs
When we think of mobility in technical terms, we think of topics such as bandwidth, resource management, location, and wireless networks. When we think of mobility in social or cultural terms, a different set of topics come into view: pilgrimage and religious practice, globalization and economic disparities, migration and cultural identity, daily commutes and the suburbanization of cities. In this paper, we examine the links between these two aspects of mobility. Drawing on non-technological examples of cultural encounters with space, we argue that mobile information technologies do not just
Ideally, the process and product of interpretive planning is a living document that serves to guide a museum's interpretation proactively. This case study details the development and resulting benefits of the first institution-wide interpretive plan at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Stimulated by internal growth and change, the institution-wide interpretive plan brought a solid sense of unity, focused direction, and a strong public message to a venerable research institution.
For this author, the in-depth conversation about Comprehensive Interpretive Plans (CIP) began at an AAM Task Force meeting in May of 2004. Building on that initial discussion, the author explores the reasons, costs and benefits of engaging in the CIP development process, and makes the case for the museum field to develop proficiency in this practice as the next step in visitor-centeredness and business success.
While theoretical work and empirical research have examined science policy-informing “dialogue events,” dialogue events that do not seek to inform public policy are under-theorized and under-researched, even though they are common and growing in popularity in the UK. We describe how, from a critical perspective, it may initially appear that such events cannot be justified without returning to the deficit model. But with this paper, we seek to open up a discussion about these non policy-informing events by arguing that there are in fact further ways to understand and frame them. We deliberately
Designers have been moving increasingly closer to the future users of what they design and the next new thing in the changing landscape of design research has become co-designing with your users. But co-designing is actually not new at all, having taken distinctly different paths in the US and in Europe. The evolution in design research from a user-centered approach to co-designing is changing the roles of the designer, the researcher and the person formerly known as the “user”. The implications of this shift for the education of designers and researchers are enormous. The evolution in design
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Elizabeth SandersPieter Jan Stappers
What meaning visitors make from their interactions with science center exhibits— and how they do so — is an issue of enduring interest in the field of learning in informal contexts. In order to explore what resources schoolchildren bring to bear in making meaning, this study used video clips taken during school trips to prompt reflection in stimulated recall interviews. The results indicated that students utilized their existing science understandings to interpret and explain their interactions with exhibits. Such findings provide evidence for the educative value of the experience as well as