CAREER: Supporting Families’ Collective Agency as Learners in Science Centers and Museums through an Integrated Research and Practice Agenda

最近的研究提倡向教育实践转变，让学习者积极地为科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）做出贡献，作为一种共享的和公共的努力，而不是将他们的参与局限于先前建立的知识的构建。在决定什么是值得了解的以及如何进行学习时，优先考虑学习者的能动性，可以通过将激励不同年龄、性别和背景的人学习的知识、文化习俗和社会互动作为中心，创造更公平和包容的学习体验。在非正式的学习环境中，家庭的社会互动是STEM学习的重要途径，科学中心和博物馆已经制定了促进家庭在STEM展览中持续参与和对话的策略。然而，展品往往引导参观者探索预定的见解，限制了家庭与STEM内容互动的方式，并忽视了利用他们先前知识的机会。强调技能培养和创造性表达的创客运动实践，以及邀请参观者以相应方式为展览做出贡献的博物馆参与性实践，都有可能将STEM学习重新定义为一个持续的、欢迎不同观点的社会过程。然而，对于如何扩大这些做法的规模，以及家庭本身对这些努力的反应，特别是对于科学中心和博物馆旨在服务的不同家庭受众，人们知之甚少。此外，尽管性别和种族都影响非正式环境中的学习，但研究往往将参与者从单一维度分开，模糊了家庭经历中的重要细微差别。通过解决这些悬而未决的问题，本研究回应了推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划的目标，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中公众STEM学习机会的设计和开发的循证理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大STEM学习经验的参与，并推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究。研究将解决(1)在探索STEM展览时，家庭如何感知和行动他们的集体认知机构（即，他们如何共同努力，谈判和追求自己的学习目标）；(2)家庭能动性的表达是否受到性别和种族的影响，以及如何受到影响；(3)什么样的展览设计特点能够支持尽可能广泛的观众的代理表达。研究性研究将使用访谈和观察性案例研究，在一系列具有独特启示的展览中检查家庭作为共享的社会实践的认知代理。文化历史活动理论和交叉方法将指导家庭活动作为由物理环境和社会背景介导的系统的定性分析。教育活动将涉及研究人员、展览设计师、教育工作者和促进者（高中和大学水平的地板工作人员）之间的持续合作，使用变革实验室模型。该小组将利用这项研究的新发现，创建一个反思工具，以指导STEM展览中更具包容性的学习体验的发展，并制定一套支持家庭表达代理的设计原则。一项纵向人种学研究将记录整个项目中包容性展览设计实践的发展，以及变革实验室参与者如何随着时间的推移发展他们对学习和展览设计的社会文化观点。在变革实验室的实践中分析这些转变，将使我们更深入地了解，在博物馆的基础设施变革中，哪些是有效的，哪些是困难的，哪些是不会发生的。通过考虑家庭身份的多个方面如何塑造他们的学习经历，这项工作将产生基于证据的建议，以帮助科学中心和博物馆制定更具包容性的实践，为尽可能广泛的家庭受众培养对学习过程的主人主人感。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent studies have advocated for a shift toward educational practices that involve learners in actively contributing to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as a shared and public endeavor, rather than limiting their involvement to the construction of previously established knowledge. Prioritizing learners’ agency in deciding what is worth knowing and how learning takes place may create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences by centering the knowledge, cultural practices, and social interactions that motivate learning for people across ages, genders, and backgrounds. In informal learning environments, families’ social interactions are critical avenues for STEM learning, and science centers and museums have developed strategies for prompting families’ sustained engagement and conversation at STEM exhibits. However, exhibits often guide visitors’ exploration toward predetermined insights, constraining the ways that families can interact with STEM content, and neglecting opportunities to tap into their prior knowledge. Practices in the maker movement that emphasize skill-building and creative expression, and participatory practices in museums that invite visitors to contribute to exhibits in consequential ways both have the potential to reframe STEM learning as an ongoing, social process that welcomes diverse perspectives. Yet little is known about how these practices can be scaled, and how families themselves respond to these efforts, particularly for the diverse family audiences that science centers and museums aim to serve. Further, although gender and ethnicity both affect learning in informal settings, studies often separate participants along a single dimension, obscuring important nuances in families’ experiences. By addressing these outstanding questions, this research responds to the goals of the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance evidence-based understanding of the design and development of STEM learning opportunities for the public in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening engagement in STEM learning experiences and advancing innovative research on STEM learning in informal environments. Research will address (1) how families perceive and act on their collective epistemic agency while exploring STEM exhibits (i.e., how they work together to negotiate and pursue their own learning goals); (2) whether and how families’ expressions of agency are influenced by gender and ethnicity; and (3) what exhibit design features support expressions of agency for the broadest possible audience. Research studies will use interviews and observational case studies at a range of exhibits with distinct affordances to examine families’ epistemic agency as a shared, social practice. Cultural historical activity theory and intersectional approaches will guide qualitative analyses of families’ activities as systems that are mediated by the physical environment and social setting. Education activities will involve an ongoing collaboration between researchers, exhibit designers, educators, and facilitators (high-school and college-level floor staff), using a Change Laboratory model. The group will use emerging findings from the research to create a reflection tool to guide the development of more inclusive learning experiences at STEM exhibits, and a set of design principles for supporting families’ expressions of agency. A longitudinal ethnographic study will document the development of inclusive exhibit design practices throughout the project as well as how the Change Lab participants develop their sociocultural perspectives on learning and exhibit design over time. Analyzing these shifts in practice within the Change Lab will provide a deeper understanding of what works and what is difficult or does not occur when working toward infrastructure change in museums. By considering how multiple aspects of families’ identities shape their learning experiences, this work will generate evidence-based recommendations to help science centers and museums develop more inclusive practices that foster a sense of ownership over the learning process for the broadest possible audience of families.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.