This article provides firm evidence, for formal and informal educators alike, that shared learning can be powerful and meaningful, if carefully considered. Findings from a study conducted in a summer middle school mathematics class suggest that when students are able to ask legitimate, authentic questions and share understanding about a common problem, their learning becomes truly “distributed by design.”
This paper explores the importance of iterative design and evaluation in developing playful learning experiences in museums. According to research, play has five defining aspects: it is structured by constraints, active without being stressful, focused on process not outcome, self-directed, and imaginative (Gray 2008). For each of these aspects, we demonstrate how an iterative process of development and formative testing improved several museum exhibits, engendering more playful learning experiences for visitors. We focus on the assessment element of the design-test process, offering in detail
In this article, I invite readers to think outside of evaluation’s current boundaries and to see the deep connectedness between what museums hope to achieve and how we evaluate the extent to which these aspirations may be realized. To do this, I present four imperatives for making museum evaluation more relevant, credible, and useful: 1) Link program activities with intended outcomes and hoped-for impact. 2) Take a systems-oriented evaluation approach. 3) Use affirmative data collection approaches based on assets and strengths. 4) Engage in courageous conversations.
Youth Action Crews map the youth development programs and places in their neighborhoods in order to raise public awareness of the opportunities—and of where such opportunities don’t exist.
Self-assessment can be a powerful tool for evaluating program quality, yet the available self-assessment instruments do not comprehensively address practices that promote academic enrichment.
This study aims to clarify primary school teacher students' experiences about the use of blogs in the context of a science course which includes collaborative inquiry-based approaches and a field trip. Teacher students were asked to design and conduct a small inquiry and report the phases of the process in a blog and then write their ideas about inquiry-based teaching and learning in it. The inquiry process was loosely scaffolded by linking the blogs together. The students were also asked to fill in a questionnaire of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), in order to acquire
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Jari KukkonenSirpa KarkkainenTeemu ValtonenTuula Keinonen
The purpose of this paper is to familiarize instructional designers and researchers with a useful design and research paradigm known as 'Ask Systems.' Ask Systems are interrogative interfaces to information and learning environments that model conversations with a skilled, reflective practitioner (Schön, The reflective practitioner, ) or teacher. By selecting questions to answer, users access information or scaffolds that help them to solve a problem, perform a task, or comprehend domain knowledge. Ask Systems are potentially effective for designing interactive learning systems because
This paper identifies the need for developing new ways to study curiosity in the context of today's pervasive technologies and unprecedented information access. Curiosity is defined in this paper in a way which incorporates the concomitant constructs of interest and engagement. A theoretical model for curiosity, interest and engagement in new media technology-pervasive learning environments is advanced, taking into consideration personal, situational and contextual factors as influencing variables. While the path associated with curiosity, interest, and engagement during learning and research
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Marilyn ArnoneRuth SmallSarah ChaunceyH. McKenna
Modern zoological gardens have invested substantial resources in technology to deliver environmental education concepts to visitors. Investment in these media reflects a currently unsubstantiated belief that visitors will both use and learn from these media alongside more traditional and less costly displays. This paper proposes a model that identifies key factors theorized to influence the likelihood of visitors engaging in technology-delivered media. Using data from two case studies of large National Science Foundation-funded projects in zoos, the authors argue key factors in predicting
In this article, we use two studies conducted in art museum settings as a means to discuss some of the opportunities and challenges for the field of informal art education. The first study explores artmaking processes that take place in a children’s museum, highlighting the need to consider the social nature of learning in informal environments. Second, a study with families in an art museum explores art appreciation and interpretation. Taken together—the creating and the responding—these two studies are used to point out how we might trace disciplinary processes in art beyond schools into the
Wildlife tourism experiences have the potential to positively impact tourists’ awareness, appreciation and actions in relation to the specific wildlife they encounter and the environment in general. This paper investigates the extent of such impact across multiple sites, and uses Structural Equation Modelling to identify factors that best predict positive long-term learning and environmental behaviour change outcomes. Three sets of variables were measured – visitors’ entering attributes (including pre-visit environmental orientation and motivation for the visit), salient aspects of the
This conceptual paper explores the nexus between travel and learning; an area of investigation long neglected by tourism researchers. Using Aristotle’s concepts of phronesis, techne and episteme a framework for the major areas of literature dealing with touristic learning are considered and opportunities and challenges for expanding the boundaries of knowledge are explored. Key proposals are: learning resulting from tourist experiences is likely to be highly personal and strongly tied to individual interests, motivations and prior knowledge; the nature of learning from a tourist experience