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Redefining Professional Learning for Museum Education
Abstract
It is through the collective work of museum educators that an organization grows its social capital in its local community and beyond its physical footprint. Given the significant contributions of museum educators to an institution’s outcomes, we argue for a shift in mindset on investing in their growth and development. We share our reasoning for this change through our experiences from the Reflecting on Practice program. Two leaders in our community offer their reflections on why they took this leap of faith and the outcomes 5–10 years since their first step.
... children and adolescents, research has shown how educators are often poorly supported through short, top-down provided trainings (Allen and Crowley, 2017;Tran et al., 2019), tend to rely on conceptualizations of knowledge and pedagogy familiar to them through their own experiences of learning in a school-based environment (Bevan and Xanthoudaki, 2008;Hwang et al., 2020;Lachapelle et al., 2019), do not feel prepared to support children's understanding of particular concepts, engage with a diverse population (e.g., special needs, intergenerational groups), and facilitate an enjoyable learning experience grounded in pedagogical practices (Ennes et al., 2020;Rose et al., 2019). We hypothesize that this includes university students in which about 22.6% of this population engaged in formal volunteering opportunities in 2023 (AmeriCorps, n.d.), such as educational and youth serving organizations. ...
... In this study, we used CHAT, an underutilized theory in non-formal learning environments (Ash and Kelly, 2013), to understand how undergraduate and graduate students negotiated contradictions through their experiences as a non-formal educator within an afterschool program. We framed the university students' experience through their active participation and reflection in a community-engaged course (Sanford and Sokol, 2017;Tran et al., 2019). Through this study, we argue that feelings and experiences with uncertainty and dissonance are an acceptable approach to support university students' growth and development as non-formal educators. ...
... They will likely make inferences of what it means to teach and attempt to implement those perceived notions even though the role of student is not the same as the role of an educator (Lortie, 1975). Non-formal educators rarely are provided the opportunity to participate in reflective professional development sessions that goes beyond a top-down approach (Allen and Crowley, 2017;Tran et al., 2019). ...
Introduction
The role of non-formal educational professionals has implications for the growth and development of the children they interact with. This group of professionals includes university students who volunteer their time in educational and youth-service organizations.
Methods
In this collective case study, we utilized Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to (a) understand how undergraduate and graduate students negotiated their development as a non-formal educational professional within an afterschool program and (b) consider how contradictions influenced their growth as educators, if at all. Three forms of data were collected from 10 graduate and undergraduate students as they volunteered their time as an educator in a 10-week afterschool program in partnership with two rural middle schools.
Results
Results highlighted shared contradictions among university students, such as lack of content knowledge and being viewed as friend versus being viewed as an educator, as they individually and collectively reflected upon their development and growth as non-formal educators within the afterschool program. Results also underscored how being a part of the afterschool program and reflecting on practice supported only some of the university students’ initial goal(s) for volunteering their time.
Discussion
We conclude with implications of this study for universities to consider in supporting the professional growth and development of their students as active learners and future educational professionals.
... Yet, while there is increased attention to inclusion of engineering in informal contexts [13-17], we have not come across any research or training materials that focus on how informal educators do or should plan and handle ongoing, just-in-time support -particularly during moments of failure. Furthermore, trainings and professional development opportunities for informal educators often include short-term experiences (e.g., two-hour workshop) grounded in traditional-focused lectures that reinforce teaching habits (e.g., transmission of knowledge) [18][19][20][21]. We heard similar examples from museum partners on this project who mentioned attending conferences, conference-style workshops on a variety of topics, and lunch-and-learns with other museums [22]. ...
... Yet, while there is increased attention to inclusion of engineering in informal contexts [13][14][15][16][17], we have not come across any research or training materials that focus on how informal educators do or should plan and handle ongoing, just-in-time support -particularly during moments of failure. Furthermore, trainings and professional development opportunities for informal educators often include short-term experiences (e.g., two-hour workshop) grounded in traditional-focused lectures that reinforce teaching habits (e.g., transmission of knowledge) [18][19][20][21]. We heard similar examples from museum partners on this project who mentioned attending conferences, conference-style workshops on a variety of topics, and lunch-and-learns with other museums [22]. ...
... We leave our professional growth, and that of our peers, to stand-alone efforts and use transmissionist (I'll tell you what you need to know) models typical of the deficit perspective we avoid in our own teaching practice. Tran et al. (2019) argued, whether intentional or not, these features underlie our industry's mindset toward professional development and don't reflect what we know about how people learn or how to transform practice. Admittedly, our group of educators embodied this mindset in our own development until we had the opportunity to invest in building our own PLC using the Reflecting on Practice™ (RoP) program. ...
... ).Tran, Gupta, & Bader (2019) articulated that as educators, we encourage learning as a lifelong and life-wide pursuit for ...
... While tools and resources have been created to help science communication professionals cope with the challenges caused by the pandemic Olesk et al., 2021), there remains an enduring divide between research and practice (Davies et al., 2021). Other than the professional learning that occurs at conferences (Roche et al., 2018), professional development opportunities in science communication generally take place at workshops, short courses, or summer schools (Miller et al., 2009) and can sometimes be limited in scope and duration (McCartney et al., 2018;Tran et al., 2019). The STEAM summer school represents a unique professional development opportunity in the field of science communication. ...
... Participants work in groups in a theatrical setting to develop creative science communication skills(STEAM Summer School 2017, 2019, and STEAM Digital School 2021. ...
STEAM is the term given to a growing field of research and practice that integrates arts into traditional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects. It is also the name of a science communication summer school that has evolved from a conventional in-person professional development opportunity to a blended informal science learning space with a flipped classroom approach. This article charts that development and includes perspectives from several science communicators who participated in in-person and online versions of the STEAM schools. The future of professional development in science communication is considered in light of the changes caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic.
... Finally, participants in both surveys discussed the need for professional development to improve their skills. This is an area of need for museum education research broadly (Tran et al., 2019) and for museumbased online learning research in particular. Research on professional development for museum educators is growing (e.g., Ennes et al., 2020;Piqueras & Achiam, 2019;Tran et al., 2019). ...
... This is an area of need for museum education research broadly (Tran et al., 2019) and for museumbased online learning research in particular. Research on professional development for museum educators is growing (e.g., Ennes et al., 2020;Piqueras & Achiam, 2019;Tran et al., 2019). For example, in a study of museum educators' levels of self-efficacy related to their position, one of the biggest areas of need for professional development was that of onsite program facilitation (Ennes et al., 2020). ...
Museums play an important role in out-of-school learning. Many museums have begun offering distance learning programs to increase their reach and the accessibility of their collections. These programs serve a wide range of audiences from pre-kindergarten to lifelong learners. This descriptive study examined the current practices in museum-based distance learning programs. Additional data was collected once museums began closing due to COVID-19 and transitioning to distance learning programs. The study foundthat museums offering programs before COVID-19 predominately offered school-based programs via teleconferencing software. Museums transitioning to distance learning programs following closures due to COVID-19 mainly utilized social media platforms to offer a wide range of programming for the general public. Additional information was gathered regarding how the programs were developed and who facilitated them. Museums are still determining how to respond to COVID-19 closures. This study described the current landscape and potential opportunities for research related to museum-based distance learning programs. These areas for research include establishing best practices, defining high-quality programs, opportunities to engage in instructional design, and professional development for the museum staff facilitating these programs.
... 4. Transformational leadership models involve leaders and teams guiding reflection to synthesize knowledge and build collective understandings that can evolve over time (Bass, 1985;Senge, 2006;Vera & Crossan, 2004). This kind of reflection supports institutions in critically examining and disrupting current practices, and in making sense of observations as teams experiment with new approaches (Kristinsd ottir, 2017;Tran et al., 2019). This allows continual updating of the knowledge and internal frameworks that can guide further change. ...
... Transformational leadership models emphasize the role of leaders in actively soliciting new ideas in these ways (Bass, 1985). Likewise, research on reflective practice points to the need for museums to examine and update their internal frameworks based on ongoing observation, experimentation, and reflection (Falk & Dierking, 2016;Kristinsd ottir, 2017;Tran et al., 2019). Our case studies show the value of putting systems in place that make experimentation an expected part of day-to-day responsibilities within and across teams. ...
Research across fields has converged on the importance of grounding STEM learning in learners’ personal, social, and cultural experiences. This article describes how distributed and transformational leadership models in science centers can enable a paradigm shift away from unidirectional communication of scientific information from institution to visitor, and toward practices that prioritize the diversity of visitors’ own experiences and their agency as learners and thinkers. Three case studies (on exhibit design, facilitation, and activity development) illustrate how adopting elements of distributed and transformational leadership models allowed project teams at the New York Hall of Science to operationalize the theoretical foundations of our museum’s educational philosophy across multiple areas of the organization. Across the three projects, supporting visitors’ agency and centering their diverse perspectives and prior knowledge required a parallel shift toward increased collaboration and agency among staff with diverse roles and areas of expertise.
... As such, this support was garnered through video recordings as 'video allows one to enter the world of the classroom without having to be in the position of teaching in-the-moment' (Sherin, 2004, p. 13). Additionally, research has highlighted how educators are able to engage in a collaborative endeavour around shared experiences, co-construct and validate particular practices and discuss ideas for growth through the integration of video clips in PD settings (e.g., Borko et al., 2008;Grabman et al., 2019;Tran et al., 2019). In this study (referred to as Study 2), we considered museum educators' errors/failure moments as reflected upon within an ongoing professional development model that used video sharing as a reflection tool. ...
Background
In this paper, we add to the scant literature base on learning from failures with a particular focus on understanding educators' shifting mindset in making‐centred learning environments.
Aims
The aim of Study 1 was to explore educators' beliefs about failure for learning and instructional practices within their local making‐centred learning environments. The aim of Study 2 was to examine how participation in a video‐based professional development cycle regarding failure moments in making‐centred learning environments might have shifted museum educators' failure pedagogical mindsets.
Sample
In Study 1, the sample included 15 educators at either a middle school or museum. In Study 2, the sample included 39 educators across six museums.
Methods
In Study 1, educators engaged in a semi‐structured interview that lasted between 45 and 75 min. In Study 2, the six museums video recorded professional development sessions.
Results
Results from Study 1 highlighted educators' failure pedagogical mindsets as either underdeveloped or rigid and absent of relational thinking between self‐ and youth‐failures. One key result from Study 2 was a shift from an abstract sense of failure as youth‐focused to a practical sense of failure as educator‐focused and/or relational (i.e., youth educator‐focused failure moments).
Conclusions
Based on the results from Study 1 and Study 2, our research suggests that exploring an educator's relationship with failure is important and witnessing and reflecting upon their own failure pedagogical mindset in action may facilitate a shift towards a more complex and interconnected space for growth and development of both educators and youth.
... A maior parte das evidências sobre os processos de formação profissional de mediadores em espaços não formais provém de descrições autorrelatadas, sendo desafiante caracterizálas (Robinson, 2019). No entanto, esforços têm sido feitos para identificar as características mais eficazes desses programas, como serem baseados em evidências, vincular teoria e prática, promover a reflexão situada na prática e a colaboração entre pares e, finalmente, que deve ser um processo contínuo ao longo do tempo (Tran, Gupta & Bader, 2019;Tran & Halversen, 2021). No entanto, a maior parte dos processos formativos dos espaços de educação não formal continuam funcionando de forma fragmentada, sem ligação com a experiência de desenvolvimento profissional efetivo obtida através da pesquisa e compartilhada através de guias para mediadores, livros, publicações e conferências (Robinson, 2019;Tran & Halversen, 2021;Patrick, 2017;Marandino, 2008). ...
A contribuição dos espaços de educação científica não formal para a melhoria do interesse e compreensão das ciências por parte dos visitantes depende, sobretudo, da mediação entre a exposição e o público realizada por mediadores[1]. A mediação de visitas guiadas é uma tarefa complexa que exige a mobilização de diferentes tipos de conhecimentos dos mediadores, que moldam as suas práticas educativas e, consequentemente, a experiência dos visitantes. Por isso, este trabalho buscou caracterizar as percepções dos mediadores de museus e centros de ciências, aquários, jardins botânicos e zoológicos brasileiros sobre seus conhecimentos. Para atingir esse objetivo, um questionário de percepção de conhecimentos foi aplicado com 78 mediadores de diferentes espaços educativos brasileiros. Isso nos permitiu caracterizar suas percepções do conhecimento do conteúdo, do contexto, dos visitantes e sua aprendizagem, e das estratégias de facilitação, reconhecendo diferenças nessas percepções de acordo com os anos de experiência do mediador. Da mesma forma, permitiu reconhecer três etapas de desenvolvimento profissional dos mediadores (inserção, estabilização e diversificação), discutir as diferentes necessidades formativas em cada uma delas e o seu potencial impacto nas práticas educativas dos mediadores. [1] Existe uma vasta gama de termos que se referem à mediação humana na educação não formal e não existe uma abordagem única sobre o que significa o seu papel (Daza-Caicedo et al., 2020; Specht & Loreit, 2021) Neste trabalho, se referirá a mediadores e educadores como aqueles profissionais voluntários ou contratados pelo espaço que realizam as visitas guiadas dos grupos
... foster justice and equity in art museums and galleries. Based on interviews conducted in 2018 and 2020, this dissertation built upon a growing body of literature that situates museum educators as adult learners (Deprizio, 2016;Palamara, 2017;Tran, Gupta, and Bader, 2019) as well as scholarly and practitioner research on training among museum educators that is grounded in critical theory (Anderson & Keenlyside, 2021;Dewhurst and Hendrick, 2018;El-Amin and Cohen, 2018;Murray-Johnson, 2019;Ng, Ware, & Greenberg, 2017). A response to a historical disconnect between critical adult education and museums (Clover et al, 2016), my research bridges the two with a reflexive approach to examining professional learning in its many forms. ...
Art museums are increasingly responding to calls for exhibitions, community engagement, and institutional changes that confront and unsettle taken-for-granted knowledge, structures, and ways of working. Grounded in such a dynamic and evolving field, this qualitative study asked the following: What does gallery educators’ own learning look like -- and what motivates it? How does ongoing competency building inform critical dialogue with visitors and support wider efforts to reshape the field through an ethos of social justice? Drawing on tenets of critical pragmatism, transformative adult learning, and constructivist grounded theory, my thesis comprised three manuscripts based on findings from two series of interviews with gallery educators in Canada and Scotland. This article highlights my findings, contextualizing my analyses on the shifting ground shaping gallery education in both countries. In doing so, it contributes to both a relative paucity of scholarly research on critical professional learning in art museums and an emerging body of literature addressing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the working lives of gallery educators and the futures that lie ahead.
... In a recent study, Tran, Gupta, and Bader [30] presented a professional development program for museum educators. Inquiry into one's practice through reflection was the key point of the program, which could run without bringing in an expert. ...
Our study looks into science museum educators' views and their practices about inquiry in non-formal venues, such as NOESIS, Greece. On this ground, we developed an interview protocol to use as a basis in the semi-structured interviews conducted with four science museum educators to cast light on their views about inquiry. In addition, an observation protocol was modified in order to observe their practices when implementing educational programs for school groups. Data analysis showed that in regard to the museum educators' views, they all expressed a slightly different view about inquiry, which was either empirically or intuitively based. They all agreed that inquiry is easier adopted in non-formal settings and argued that students' main gain when they get engaged in inquiry-based activities is the actual involvement they experience. As regards the museum edu-cators' practices, a repertoire of teaching approaches was observed, ranging from a traditional teacher-centered approach to open inquiry. Building on our data, we suggest the development and implementation of a professional development course that will enrich science museum educators' inquiry views and practices and empower them to integrate inquiry-based practices into their own.
... The copyedited final version of this article has been published in Cognition and Instruction and is accessible here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07370008.2022.2129639 knowledge (e.g., Bevan & Xanthoudaki, 2008;Rowe & Kisiel, 2012) to experts who can reflect on their professional practice in ways that can lead to institutional change (Tran, 2008;Tran et al., 2013;Tran et al., 2019). Our paper aims to extend notions of museum facilitator agency specifically within the context of a design-based research project. ...
In this paper, we emphasize the importance of looking beyond technology itself and including interactional and experiential elements in our research gaze in informal computing education in science museums. We argue that, in these contexts, facilitation can be understood as design work that is both complex and challenging. We identify how focusing on infrastructuring—the process by which an exhibit’s support systems emerge, shift, and are sustained in practice—can help develop a richer understanding of the complexity of this work. In this study, we examine facilitators’ experiences of facilitating and supporting a computational exhibit in a science museum. We identify how facilitators’ expertise, roles, and responsibilities shape their facilitation work. Through analysis of video-recorded interactions at the exhibit and interviews with facilitators, we showcase how facilitators’ in-the-moment design moves addressed breakdowns of the exhibit’s infrastructure. These design moves emerged from the complex interaction of each facilitator’s epistemological views of computing and museum education, values, past experiences, and disciplinary background, as well as the museum culture and other institutional constraints. This analysis represents an important challenge to technocentric stances in informal computing education with implications for informal educators and managers, as well as designers and design researchers more broadly.
... One typical limitation, as noted in Tran et al. (2019 ), is the diverse backgrounds that ISLE educators bring to the table, in terms of experience on what good teaching and learning look like in a classroom. Authors argue that other museums, as they did, should implement a professional learning program to bring everyone to common expectations. ...
Examining the critical role of informal science learning environments in supporting science teacher preparation, this chapter provides a review of the literature on partnerships and collaborations of informal science learning environments and institutions of higher education. This synthesis explores intersections between informal science learning environments and teacher identity and place-based learning, as well as identifies existing gaps in the research. Examining issues of equity, this chapter explores how the affordances of informal science learning environments support building communities and show novice teachers how to open doors to equitable practices, assets, and resources. This chapter also unravels challenges and barriers connected to privilege and access to spaces as well as sustainable and scalable approaches evident in our current research.
... Dentro de las líneas desarrolladas, ha resultado especialmente prolífica en la última década la investigación evaluativa (Calaf et al., 2020), centrada en la evaluación de programas educativos de museos y sitios de patrimonio con varios proyectos de I+D+i y publicaciones que han arrojado luz sobre un tema que sigue siendo emergente (Calaf et al., 2017;Calaf y Suárez, 2016;Fontal et al., 2019;Sánchez et al., 2019). No obstante, uno de los ámbitos aún por desarrollar en nuestro país es el concerniente a las educadoras/es de museos y su profesionalización; cuestión que, en los últimos veinte años, ha suscitado un creciente interés a nivel internacional (Tran et al., 2019). ...
En la última década en España se ha producido, dentro de la Educación Patrimonial, un impulso notable en la investigación evaluativa aplicada a programas educativos de museos y otras instituciones patrimoniales. Sin embargo, uno de los ámbitos que aún no se han desarrollado tiene que ver con la profesionalización de los educadores de museos. En este sentido, se plantea un estudio que indaga en las visitas guiadas y la interacción educador-públicos escolares. El objetivo es identificar factores que intervienen en su desarrollo para contribuir a la definición de un colectivo que, aun siendo esencial, no goza de reconocimiento profesional pleno. Así, contando con 3 observadores no participantes, se han realizado 40 seguimientos de visitas guiadas en 7 museos de Asturias de temática histórica. Los participantes han sido grupos escolares desde 1º de Primaria a 2º de Bachillerato (843 estudiantes) y 18 educadores. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la importancia de a) la formación inicial de los educadores y su coherencia con la temática del museo; b) la experiencia profesional en el museo y la estabilidad laboral; c) el curso de los escolares y la vinculación entre el trabajo del aula y la temática del museo. Estos hallazgos pueden servir para abrir nuevas líneas de investigación que profundicen en la profesionalización de los educadores y contribuyan a mejorar la calidad educativa en contextos no formales.
... The professional development of museum communicators and educators is integral to understanding and improving best practice in the field (Tran and King 2007;Bevan and Xanthoudaki 2008). Professional learning opportunities are readily available to the museum sector in the form of workshops and conferences (Trant 2009;Roche et al. 2018), however, these tend to be once-off experiences (Tran, Gupta, and Bader 2019). The practice of academic writing may appear incompatible with the museum vision of impactful and publicly accessible communication; particularly because this vision is not always shared by some academic publications. ...
Museum staff strive to create environments rich in opportunity for visitors to explore their relationship with their heritage, culture, art, or science. Their unique expertise in communicating and creating educational spaces are critical to the field of informal learning. Museum staff possess wide-ranging capabilities across various forms of communication, but many organisations do not employ specialist research staff whose day-to-day work includes writing and publishing in academic journals. Consequently, the academic research that takes place in museums is conducted and published with museum staff, rather than by museum staff. As part of the European science communication project, QUEST, an academic writing group composed of museum staff was established with the goal of creating a handbook to encourage and aid museum professionals in extending their communication skills so that they may convey their work in academic writing and take ownership of how their field is portrayed in the published literature.
... Failing to attend to relationships, hierarchies and the meaningful actions of all involved as part of the design or reform activity, leaves the status quo intact and constrains the possibilities for real and meaningful change in educational settings (Carlone & Webb, 2006). This is especially important given that informal STEM education scholars rarely focus on the work of museum facilitators, and the literature largely views facilitators through a deficit lens and as needing more training (Ji et al., 2016;Tran et al. 2019). The spectre of technocentrism (Papert, 1980) -the fallacy of referring all questions about technology to the technology itself, rather than inquiring about the socially, historically and institutionally constructed meanings and experience of technology -looms large in the field of computing education (Sengupta et al., 2021). ...
Design-based research, when taking place within research practice partnership, leads to an essential tension between the interventionist nature of educational design and a commitment to praxis. We encountered this tension within a DBR project to design a computational science exhibit within a science museum, and in this paper, we highlight how paying attention to praxis shifted our epistemological enframings and methodologies of our work. Moving away from a device-centered approach focused solely on the design of the exhibit, we show how listening carefully to museum facilitators led to the recognition of their hidden labor, and helped us to explicitly position the museum facilitators as co-designers.
... Understandably, it's valuable for learning acquired by individual staff to transfer to the organization. What's inappropriate, however, is how learning for staff is often viewed and carried out (Tran, Gupta, & Bader, 2019). Entrenched in traditions of workforce development and organizational management, staff development has common features that are counterproductive to learning or transforming practice. ...
... Se o museu acha que é um produto, então ele terá que avaliar sim o que a pessoa entende de algum conteúdo (MACMANUS, 2013, p. 51-52).Em outros termos, a concepção de educação das instituições orienta as ações realizadas pelos museus e suas atividades seguem determinadas tendências educacionais. Destarte, se os profissionais da instituição têm clareza das concepções que embasam as suas práticas educativas, o trabalho torna-se mais relevante e de maior alcance(MARANDINO, 2008).Por isso, é preciso investir na formação dos educadores de museus, mas, conforme apontamTran et al. (2019), muitas vezes, devido à escassez de recursos, os museus optam por investir na infraestrutura e nas coleções e deixam a formação dos profissionais museais de lado.A dimensão educativa dos museus, para além das relações estabelecidas entre educadores e o público em geral, tem larga trajetória com professores e estudantes que visitam suas exposições. A parceria entre museu e escola é de muita reciprocidade e as análises sobre essa relação desses períodos de tempo. ...
Este artigo objetiva mapear e analisar as mudanças nas definições de museu no Brasil e como estas se relacionam com a educação museal a partir da análise da produção científica brasileira. Esta é uma pesquisa qualitativa bibliográfica. Os dados foram constituídos a partir do Catálogo de Teses e Dissertações da CAPES, no período de 1987 a 2017, em intervalos de dez anos, e explorados por meio da Análise de Conteúdo. Os resultados mostram que as definições de museu mudaram ao longo do tempo, passando a valorizar mais as práticas educativas. Entretanto, mais da metade das pesquisas não exibe uma definição direta de museu. A falta de clareza conceitual sobre educação museal pode contribuir para que tendências pedagógicas menos críticas aconteçam, comprometendo as potencialidades educativas destas instituições.
... Moreover, educators in these spaces come from varying academic backgrounds and many have not completed teacher education programs where they may have participated in discussions on how people learn and the best ways to engage learners. The lack of professional development available for OST staff is further exacerbated by the fact that culturally responsive teaching is often misunderstood, and best practices are likely not employed for both planning and delivering learning experiences (Tran, Gupta and Bader 2019). ...
Informal learning organizations such as museums, zoos, aquaria, gardens, and community-based organizations are often positioned as having programming that fill a void that may exist in the lives of youth participants. Often these institutions do not recognize the assets that youth gain from their own homes and communities and bring to bear in these programs and that contribute to their success and persistence in STEM and academics. In this paper, we problematize the prevailing deficit-oriented approach to STEM enrichment programs for youth who are underrepresented in STEM. Drawing from Tara Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth, we describe the STEM identity and trajectories of three individuals as they navigated a long-term, museum-based, informal science learning program. Using Yosso’s framework, we describe the capital that youth brought into the program and the ways that they leveraged this capital as they moved from middle to high school, and into their postsecondary studies and early careers in the sciences. Furthermore, we describe how their existing capital intertwined with capital they gained from the museum program in ways that fostered persistence and achievement in science.
Didattica Museale e Realtà Virtuale: quali prospettive educative? © Nuova Secondaria-n. 6, febbraio 2024-anno XLI-ISSN 1828-4582 L'integrazione della realtà virtuale nella didattica museale apre oggi nuovi ed innovativi orizzonti in campo educativo, in grado di consentire esperienze coinvolgenti, immersive e accessibili a tutti e favorire un apprendimento significativo attraverso diversi livelli sensoriali e cognitivi. Il presente studio esplora l'impatto della Realtà Virtuale (VR) nell'ambito della didattica museale, concentrandosi sulle future prospettive educative offerte da tale sinergia. La VR, attraverso la simulazione di ambienti e oggetti museali, consente agli studenti di interagire in modo diretto e vivido con il contenuto, superando le limitazioni spazio-temporali dei musei fisici. I vantaggi pedagogici della VR includono, inoltre, l'incremento dell'engagement degli studenti, la personalizzazione dell'apprendimento e la possibilità di adattare le esperienze educative a diversi stili di apprendimento, consentendo di esplorare contesti culturali diversi e lontani in modi precedentemente inaccessibili. Parole chiave Didattica museale; realtà virtuale; didattica innovativa; apprendimento significativo; educazione
This chapter assesses museum transformation since the demise of the apartheid government. The literature review was used. The author found that a lot needs to be done in South Africa to integrate South Africa communities. This is because South Africa museums still divide. The review of literature found that most museums still preserve white supremacy museum artefacts.
Didattica Museale e Realtà Virtuale: quali prospettive educative? © Nuova Secondaria-n. 6, febbraio 2024-anno XLI-ISSN 1828-4582 L'integrazione della realtà virtuale nella didattica museale apre oggi nuovi ed innovativi orizzonti in campo educativo, in grado di consentire esperienze coinvolgenti, immersive e accessibili a tutti e favorire un apprendimento significativo attraverso diversi livelli sensoriali e cognitivi. Il presente studio esplora l'impatto della Realtà Virtuale (VR) nell'ambito della didattica museale, concentrandosi sulle future prospettive educative offerte da tale sinergia. La VR, attraverso la simulazione di ambienti e oggetti museali, consente agli studenti di interagire in modo diretto e vivido con il contenuto, superando le limitazioni spazio-temporali dei musei fisici. I vantaggi pedagogici della VR includono, inoltre, l'incremento dell'engagement degli studenti, la personalizzazione dell'apprendimento e la possibilità di adattare le esperienze educative a diversi stili di apprendimento, consentendo di esplorare contesti culturali diversi e lontani in modi precedentemente inaccessibili. Parole chiave Didattica museale; realtà virtuale; didattica innovativa; apprendimento significativo; educazione
Understanding equitable practice is crucial for science education since science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and STEM learning practices remain significantly marked by structural inequalities. In this paper, building on theories of discourse and situated meaning developed by Foucault, Gee, and Sedgewick, we explore how educators navigated discourses about social justice in informal science learning (ISL) across four UK sites. We draw on qualitative, multimodal data across 5 years of a research–practice partnership between a university, a zoo, a social enterprise working to support girls and nonbinary youth in STEM, a community digital arts center, and a science center. We identify three key discourses that shaped social justice practices across all four practice–partner sites: (1) “inclusion” for STEM, (2) “inclusion” for the institution, and (3) “inclusion” for minoritized youth. We discuss how educators ( n = 17) enacted, negotiated, resisted, and reworked these discourses to create equitable practice. We argue that while the three key discourses shaped the possible meanings and practices of equitable ISL in different ways, educators used their agency and creativity to develop more expansive visions of social justice. We discuss how the affordances, pitfalls, and contradictions that emerged within and between the three discourses were strategically navigated and disrupted by educators to support the minoritized youth they worked with, as well as to protect and promote equity in ISL. This paper contributes to research on social justice in ISL by grounding sometimes abstract questions about power and discourse in ISL educators' everyday work.
The Bogota Planetarium, in its role as a science center, cultural equipment of the District Institute of the Arts IDARTES and science museum aims to ensure the exercise of cultural rights through the construction of communities with emphasis on the appropriation of scientific, artistic, and technological knowledge of the various audiences it impacts. For this purpose, an interdisciplinary network in dissemination and education has been proposed, implying a unified vision for developing actions. For this reason, it is necessary to have a pedagogical model for non-conventional educational spaces, which, for the Bogota Planetarium, is based on a constructivist theory that brings together the approaches of science, technology, and society, differential approach, universal learning design, an investigative approach, and visible thinking; these will be unified and put into action through a reflective methodology that works from a transdisciplinary thematic axis. Finally, based on the results and evidence obtained from the implementation of visible thinking, it will be possible to conduct a contextualized evaluation that will lead to feedback on the model and the processes.
Purpose
Relatively few studies have examined the perspectives of informal learning facilitators who play key roles in cultivating an equitable learning environment for nondominant youth and families in making and tinkering spaces. This study aims to foreground the perspectives of facilitators and highlight the complexities and tensions that influence their equity work.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with facilitators of making and tinkering spaces across three informal learning organizations: a museum, a public library system and a network of community technology centers. This study then used a framework that examined equity along dimensions of access to what, for whom, based on whose values and toward what ends to analyze both the explicit and implicit conceptions of equity that surfaced in these interviews.
Findings
Across organizations, this study identified similarities and differences in facilitators’ conceptualizations of equity that were influenced by their different contexts and had implications for practice at each organization. Highlighting the complexity of enacting equity in practice, this study found moments when dimensions of equity came together in resonant ways, while other moments showed how dimensions can be in tension with each other.
Practical implications
The complexity that facilitators must navigate to enact equity in their practice emphasizes the need for professional development and support for facilitators to deepen their conceptions and practices around equity beyond access – not just skill building in making and tinkering.
Originality/value
This study recognizes the important role that facilitators play in enabling equity-oriented participation in making and tinkering spaces and contributes the “on the ground” perspectives of facilitators to highlight the complexity and tensions of enacting equity in practice.
This article highlights the common findings of research investigating the possible relationship between the font used in multimedia texts and thequality of reading of a dyslexic reader. The process that led to the creation of a font for the Greek alphabet according to the characteristics of Open-Dyslexic is described below. In the final part, future researches are proposed that can solve the critical aspects of this new educational technology.
Questo articolo evidenzia i risultati comuni delle ricerche che hanno indagato la possibile relazione tra il font utilizzato in testi multimediali e la quali-tà della lettura di un lettore dislessico. Di seguito viene descritto il processo che ha portato alla realizzazione di un font per l'alfabeto greco secondo lecaratteristiche di OpenDyslexic. Nella parte finale, vengono proposte ricerche future che possano risolvere gli aspetti critici di questa nuova tecnolo-gia didattica
(1) (PDF) Bilotti, U., Todino, M.D., Fella, A. (2023). Implementation of Greek alphabet characters according to the OpenDyslexic standard and teacher's guide for font use. Journal of Inclusive Methodology and Technology in Learning and Teaching - ISSN 2785-5104 - Anno 3 n. 1 suppl.. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370833690_Bilotti_U_Todino_MD_Fella_A_2023_Implementation_of_Greek_alphabet_characters_according_to_the_OpenDyslexic_standard_and_teacher's_guide_for_font_use_Journal_of_Inclusive_Methodology_and_Technology_in_ [accessed Dec 21 2023].
When museum research is published, it is often written by researchers who observe or work with museum staff rather than by museum professionals themselves. By making academic writing and publishing more inclusive to museum professionals, their unique communication skills and experiences could be harnessed to better reflect the museum sector in the published literature. Encouraging professional development at workshops and conferences and developing resources and tools with and for museum professionals represent some of the positive developments in how museum professionals can develop their academic writing and publishing skills, and in turn gain control of how research is described in their fields.
The presented treatise deals with the profession of museum educators, which has changed in the past few decades from unanchored and individualised educational work in museums into an independent and officially accepted profession. This transformation was initiated by the dynamic development of the discipline of museum pedagogy and the education practice in museums. The aim of the work is to map out this transformation, characterise the profession of museum educators in the Czech Republic and to set this problem into the international context.
As art museums increasingly commit to socially engaged practices that require critical ways of engaging with artworks, collaborators, and visitors, what does gallery educators’ ongoing learning look like, and what motivates it? How does it inform or respond to change? Drawing on research with freelance gallery educators in Scotland, this article examines these questions within the overlapping contexts of the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice in 2020. The tensions, challenges, and possibilities that emerged from participants’ stories reveal complex relationships between professional learning, freelancer realities, and the adaptability required across the profession. In fleshing out how such a significant and unstable moment shaped professional learning, I consider what the field of museum education can learn from freelancers’ experiences. Moving forward, how can we imagine futures that foster ongoing critical learning, sustained accountability, and collective wellbeing?
It’s never easy to realize that, despite good intentions, one’s efforts to be helpful may cause more harm. That is, in part, the reckoning the ISE field must address as we emerge from the global pandemic striving to do and be better. While there are instances and examples of educational work that exemplify our vision for equity, access, and inclusion, for the most part, ISE practice continues to operate within paradigms from the larger systems of society that perpetuate inequalities. We argue work towards the just and egalitarian goals in ISE organization’s equity and access statements fall short without the organization’s staff (the humans who do the work) engaging in critical consciousness together. Building on a model from youth development scholars, we advocate for the need to include humility, compassion, and belonging in critical consciousness. Without these components, unconscious biases shade people’s abilities to see the strengths in those different from them, to offer care to everyone (especially people who have been pushed into the margins), and to work towards ensuring everyone is rightfully welcomed, just as they are. Importantly, we must embody these ideas with our staff and in our work culture before we can genuinely practice them for our audiences. Doing so requires a mindset towards professional learning and reflective practice, and then intentionally designing and refining structures to support learning from individual staff into the collective organization.
Our museum-based participatory research (PR) project was a collaboration between researchers and educators in an out-of-school time STEM education program for young people that positions STEM as a tool for community social justice. This project drew on literatures on reflective practice in museums and on research-practice partnerships. Yet following existing approaches did not work for us. Aligning research and pedagogical practices, we co-created practical, reflective, and practice-based data-generation methods, calling them “embedded research practices:” context-specific, emergent methods rooted in practice that served practice and research needs and centered shared axiological commitments. Four examples are outlined. Embedded research practices echo assessment in informal learning, emphasize the interaction of research and practice, call attention to the emergent and co-created nature of PR, and serve needs for professional learning for museum educators.
In the 21st century, museum educators are adapting to a changing field and actively considering the meaning of their roles as professionals, and yet there is little research on the topic of professional self-efficacy in museums. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine museum educators’ professional self-efficacy. A diverse group of thirty-three practicing museum educators were interviewed, all of whom worked in non-STEM-focused institutions. Leadership strategies, institutional culture, and access to professional development emerged as significant factors in the development of museum educators’ professional efficacy. Study results suggest practices that could be employed by museum studies faculty, mentors of emerging professionals, and others invested in the professionalization of museum educators to support the ongoing development of their colleagues’ confidence to do their jobs.
There is increasing recognition that significant amounts of science learning take place over the course of one’s lifetime and much of this learning takes place outside of the formal educational settings. This learning is often facilitated by educators in these informal science settings. While much is known about educators in formal classroom settings, the research on informal science educators is nascent. This study aims to add to the literature through a survey of informal science educators’ levels of self-efficacy related to their work. The participants in this study (n = 400) completed a 35-item survey the survey which included 32 Likert scale questions on perceived levels of self-efficacy in different aspects of teaching in an informal science setting. When examining the results, the areas where the respondents felt less than skillful fell in areas related to facilitation and teaching about physical sciences concepts. Identifying areas where informal science educators feel less than skillful can help improve professional development opportunities by tailoring them to cover specific skills.
Interventions by creative practitioners play an increasingly important part within museum education. This produces a series of questions and tensions around the relationship between creativity and authenticity in terms of the role and limits of evidence, where room for creativity lies, and what it looks like. We explore these questions in the context of prehistoric archaeology by reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of working with creative practitioners during the process of developing a performance-based live game in the Creative Europe project, Journey to the Beginnings.
The growth of the Maker Movement has had a profound impact on museum education, particularly in science centers and museums that have established Maker Spaces, Fab Labs, or Tinkering Studios. While this has resulted in new educational practice taking root in these organizations, it has also raised the question of how best to support museum educators tasked with facilitating Maker programs, especially those that are underpinned by theories of learning different to those that may have guided the facilitators' own education. Reflective practice offers a means to address this discrepancy through continuous learning. This paper charts the rise of Making and the need for more reflective practice among museum educators. A facilitator debriefing tool that demonstrates how reflective practice can have a transformative effect on the facilitators of Maker activities is also presented.
In this study, 178 groups of visitors were interviewed
and recorded during their visits to museums.
Three clusters of elements were shown
to influence learning: the identity of the visitors,
their response to the learning environment, and
their explanatory engagement during the visit. A
structural equation model using these variables
fit well. Further examination revealed that not all
conversational behavior was supportive of learning;
some actions, such as making frequent personal
connections, were detrimental to learning;
additionally, silent contemplation was modestly
associated with learning. This paper discusses
these findings through the experiences of four
couples whose outcome measures placed them
at the extreme high or low end of the learning
distribution.
Continuing to learn is universally accepted and expected by professionals and other stakeholders across all professions. However, despite changes in response to research findings about how professionals learn, many professional development practices still focus on delivering content rather than enhancing learning. In exploring reasons for the continuation of didactic practices in professional development, this article critiques the usual conceptualization of professional development through a review of recent literature across professions. An alternative conceptualization is proposed, based on philosophical assumptions congruent with evidence about professional learning from seminal educational research of the past two decades. An argument is presented for a shift in discourse and focus from delivering and evaluating professional development programs to understanding and supporting authentic professional learning.
It has been argued that visitors' pre-visit “agendas” directly influence visits. This study attempted to directly test the effects of different museum visit agendas on visitor learning. Two new tools were developed for this purpose: (1) a tool for measuring visitor agendas; and (2) a tool for measuring visitor learning (Personal Meaning Mapping). Visitor agenda was defined as having two dimensions: motivations and strategies. Personal Meaning Mapping is a constructivist approach that measures change in understanding along four semi-independent dimensions: extent, breadth, depth, and mastery. The study looked at 40 randomly-selected adults who were visiting the National Museum of Natural History's Geology, Gems and Minerals exhibition. Visitor agendas did significantly impact how, what, and how much individuals learned. Results are discussed in terms of the current debate about education vs. entertainment.
The reflection that accompanies the evidence a candidate presents in the performance-based product is a critical part of the candidate's development. Through reflection the candidate begins the ongoing process of blending the art and science of good teaching practice. Reflection requires thoughtful and careful reporting and analysis of teaching practice, philosophy, and experience. Understanding why an activity or practice was productive or nonproductive in the classroom is a key element in the progression from novice to master teacher. The reflection cycle and the guiding questions included in this packet are designed to assist licensure candidates in the reflection process. They will enable candidates to better understand the reflection process and address the question; "How does this piece of evidence demonstrate my knowledge and skill level in this activity?". The following reflection cycle offers a prescriptive structure while allowing the flexibility necessary for candidates to demonstrate their knowledge, skill, and ability in the unique context of their area and environment. The reflections of the novice teacher are also vital to the assessors charged with the responsibility for judging whether the teacher has met the required level of performance for each standard based activity. Through their responses to the guiding questions, candidates will better be able to put evidence into perspective for the review team members by explaining how the evidence or artifact addresses the standard through the activity.
Learning in the Museum (Museum Meanings). London: Routledge
- G E Hein
There’s a SMART way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives
- G Doran
From Knowledge to Narrative and Hein, Learning in the Museum
- Roberts
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Reframing Professional Development
- Webster-Wright
Webster-Wright, "Reframing Professional Development."
How We Think and Tran, The How and Why
- Dewey
Dewey, How We Think and Tran, The How and Why.
13. National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments
- Doran
Doran, "There's a SMART Way."
13. National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments.
Reflective Teaching: An Introduction. 2nd ed, Reflective Teaching and the Social Conditions of Schooling
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Zeichner, K. M., and D. Liston. Reflective Teaching: An Introduction. 2nd ed, Reflective Teaching
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