Learning Science in Informal Environments People, Places, and Pursuits (2009) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
9 Conclusions and Recommendations
9 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 291-314
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From page 291... ...
They include informal learning and community-based organizations, think tanks, institutions of higher education, private companies, government agencies, and philanthropic foundations. And through after-school programs and field trips, schools facilitate science learning in informal environments on a broad scale.
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Thus, diversity of perspectives is beneficial both to science and to the understanding of learning. It also stands as a potential resource for the design of informal environments for science learning.
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From page 293... ...
Increased memory capacity, reasoning, and metacognitive skills that come with maturation enable adult learners to explore science in new ways, summarized in Chapter 6 in the section "Programs for Older Learners." Senior citizens retain many of these capabilities, and as they mature their interests change. Informal environments are of fundamental importance for supporting science learning by adults, particularly because they thrive in environments that acknowledge their needs and life experiences.
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From page 294... ...
They also can be effective in improving students' attitudes toward science and toward themselves as science learners. C onclusion 3: Learning science in informal environments involves developing positive science-related attitudes, emotions, and identities; learning science practices; appreciating the social and historical context of science; and cognition.
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Strand 1 emphasizes the importance of building on prior interests and motivations by allowing learners choice and agency in their learning. Strand 1 is particularly relevant to informal environments that are rich with phenomena -- a local stream, backyard insects, a museum exhibit illustrating Newtonian physics, watching pigeons downtown, rangerled national park tours.
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From page 296... ...
For example, informal settings could be designed with the explicit intent of supporting learning progressions in a manner tightly aligned with K-12 science curriculum goals. Alternatively, informal environments could differentiate themselves from the K-12 agenda.
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Educators can support learners of all ages by intentionally querying, drawing on, and extending their interests, ideas about self, and knowledge. INFORMAL ENVIRONMENTS C onclusion 6: Informal science learning, although composed of multiple communities of practice, shares common commitments to science learning environments that:
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From page 298... ...
Hallmarks of learning in informal environments include interactivity driv en by learner choice, an emphasis on the emotional responses of individual participants, and group experiences. At its best, informal science learning builds on both long-term and momentary or situated interests and motivations of learners.
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Some relationships once accepted on the strength of phenotypic similarities have been dashed in light of new genetic information, and new relationships are being established. Informal science learning environments seek to provide insight into how the creative tension between stable and changing information and perspectives creates reliable knowledge.
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For example, as summarized in Chapter 8, several studies (both experimental and quasi-experimental) have examined science television as an informal learning medium for children and youth and have shown that educational science programming can support science learning.
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Several studies suggest that informal environments for science learning may be particularly effective for youth from historically nondominant groups -- groups with limited sociopolitical status in society, who are often marginalized because of their cultural, language, and behavioral differences. For example, as discussed in Chapter 6, evaluations of museum-based and after-school programs suggest that these experiences can support academic gains for children and youth from nondominant groups.
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Even facilitators who are not experts in science (e.g., in after-school and community-based programs) can serve as intermediaries to informal science learning experiences.
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One of the more noteworthy features of informal learning settings is the absence of tests, grades, class rankings, and other familiar approaches to documenting achievement that are characteristic of schools. The informal science community has nonetheless recognized the need to assess the impact of informal learning experiences in order to understand how everyday, after-school, museum, and other types of settings contribute to the development of scientific knowledge and capabilities.
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and a lack of incentives to publish for many researchers and evaluators in nonacademic positions. Although there is a tremendous body of evidence relevant to learning science in informal environments, there is a limited (but growing)
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Many opportunities to learn from evaluations are lost as reports of outcomes are often not accompanied with careful description of practice or relevant comparisons to prior efforts and findings. C onclusion 17: There is an interdisciplinary community of scholars and educators who share an interest in developing coherent theory and practice of learning science in informal environments.
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Our recommendations flow from the conclusions presented in this chapter and focus on improving both science learning experiences and research on learning science in informal environments. Given the nature of the evidence base, the recommendations for improving informal learning environments should be understood as promising ideas for further development that require additional validation through research and evaluation.
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Recommendation 1: Exhibit and program designers should create informal environments for science learning according to the following principles. Informal environments should • be designed with specific learning goals in mind (e.g., the strands of science learning)
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The relevant knowledge and skill needed to design state-of-the-art learn ing experiences reside among a constellation of actors. Ideally the design of science learning experiences in informal environments would begin with such diverse teams, who would work collaboratively over time in the devel opment process.
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From page 309... ...
Recommendation 5: Researchers, evaluators, and other leaders in informal education should broaden opportunities for publication of peer-reviewed research and evaluation, and provide incentives for investigators in nonacademic positions to publish their work in these outlets. Recommendation 6: Researchers and evaluators should integrate bodies of research on learning science in informal environments by developing theory that spans venues and links cognitive, affective, and sociocultural accounts of learning.
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further testing common theoretical frameworks in science learning activities and analyses, and (3) exploring how theoreti cal frameworks in other social science fields can inform science learning in informal environments.
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This view includes aspects of science learning that are supported in informal environments as well as in schools. It also aligns with the commitment informal education to participant engagement and development of interest and identity (Strands 1 and 6)
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Although it is important to understand the impact of informal environments, a more important question may be how science learning occurs across the range of formal and informal environments. The science learning literatures and fields are segmented (e.g., into school learning, informal education)
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A better understanding of the naturally occurring science learning in nondominant and dominant cultures is needed to inform basic theory and to design learning experiences that meaningfully attend to the cultural practices of diverse groups. Media Media, in particular television and Internet resources, are the most soughtout tool for learning about science.
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And these characteristics of new digital tech nologies -- dialogic structure, user-direction and organization, and expansive networking of learners and resources -- resonate with the values and research findings of the informal science learning community. Research on the impact of media is needed to understand how the unique features of media can support different aspects of science learning (e.g., the six strands)
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