Practice-driven Research: Developing Constructivism-informed Tools for Supporting Learning in Informal Contexts

关于博物馆工作人员如何培训的研究不断出现。培训因机构而异，通常包括观察、跟踪和试错。虽然博物馆教育工作者高度重视增加以游客为中心的参与式体验，但即使经过培训，基于获取的学习理论的参与在楼层工作人员中仍然很常见。促进学习科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）主题的方式，支持游客在构建自己的理解是困难的，特别是因为楼层工作人员/辅导员可能同时与儿童和成人的年龄，背景和目标。该项目将促进了解如何促进开放式学习体验的方式，使游客参与与STEM学科相一致的实践。该项目将产生一个循证促进框架和培训模块，用于培训非正规科学教育工作者。这项工作以学习和身份工作的建构主义理论为基础，重点是通过积极参与STEM实践来构建对STEM主题的理解。这一模式还导致在非正式环境中的学习经验，与学校的目标相辅相成。这项研究是通过MOXI，沃尔夫探索与创新博物馆和加州大学圣巴巴拉分校（UCSB）。这项工作的两个主要目标是（1）使游客能够更好地参与STEM实践（基于实践的学习）和（2）调查培训在帮助促进者发展实践中的作用-基于促进战略，需要支持游客的学习。本研究的STEM内容是物理科学。之前的工作产生了两个工具，构成了一个促进框架的一部分（一个实践的参与矩阵和三个促进途径），帮助教育工作者确定适当的目标的基础上，游客是如何与展览。框架中最终工具的开发、促进战略以及前两个工具的完善将采用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR）方法。数据收集和分析将由UCSB研究生（研究人员）和MOXI教育工作者（从业人员）组成的研究实践团队指导和完成; MOXI教育工作者将既是参与者又是研究人员。数据收集活动包括：利用来访者和教育工作者佩戴的视角摄像机收集视频数据;对教育工作者和来访者进行访谈;观察培训方案;以及教育工作者的反思。在最后一年，将在代表不同类型博物馆的六个地点进行小型实地测试。访谈和反思构成了实地数据收集的一部分。 该项目由推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验，推进创新研究和评估的STEM学习在非正式环境中，并发展的理解，更深层次的学习参与者。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准的支持。

Research on how museum staff are trained continues to emerge. Training varies considerably across institutions and typically includes observations, shadowing, and trial and error. While museum educators put high value on increasing visitor-centered participatory experiences, engagement based on acquisition-based theories of learning is still common among floor staff, even after training. Facilitating learning about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics in ways that support visitors in constructing their own understanding is difficult, especially since floor staff/facilitators may be working simultaneously with children and adults of a range of ages, backgrounds, and goals. This project will advance understanding of how to facilitate open-ended learning experiences in ways that engage visitors in practices that align with the STEM disciplines. The project will result in an evidence-based facilitation framework and training modules for training informal science educators. The work is grounded in constructivist theories of learning and identity work and focuses on visitors constructing understanding of STEM topics through active engagement in the practices of STEM. This model also results in learning experiences in informal settings that are mutually reinforcing with the goals of schools. This research is being conducted through an established researcher-practitioner partnership between MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation and the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB).The two primary goals of the work are to (1) enable visitors to better engage in STEM practices (practice-based learning) and (2) investigate the role of training in helping facilitators develop the practice-based facilitation strategies needed to support visitors' learning. STEM content in this study is physical science. Prior work resulted in two tools that constitute part of a facilitation framework (a practices-by-engagement matrix and three facilitation pathways) which help educators identify appropriate goals based on how the visitor is engaging with exhibits. The development of the final tool in the framework, facilitation strategies, and the refinement of the first two tools will be done using a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach. Data collection and analysis will be directed and completed by research-practitioner teams of UCSB graduate students (researchers) and MOXI educators (practitioners); MOXI educators will be both participants and researchers. Data collection activities include: video data using point-of-view cameras worn by visitors and educators; interviews of educators and visitors; observations of the training program; and educator reflections. In the final year, a small field test will be done at six sites, representing different types of museums. Interviews and reflections comprise the data collection at the field sites. This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants.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.