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

关于如何培训博物馆员工的研究不断涌现。不同机构的培训差异很大，通常包括观察、跟随和试错。虽然博物馆教育工作者非常重视增加以游客为中心的参与性体验，但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，即使在培训之后也是如此。以支持参观者构建自己的理解的方式促进科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）主题的学习是困难的，特别是因为楼层工作人员/辅导员可能同时与不同年龄、背景和目标的儿童和成人一起工作。该项目将促进对如何促进开放式学习体验的理解，使参观者参与与STEM学科相一致的实践。该项目将产生一个以证据为基础的促进框架和培训模块，用于培训非正式科学教育者。这项工作以学习和认同工作的建构主义理论为基础，重点关注参观者通过积极参与STEM实践来构建对STEM主题的理解。这种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）之间建立的研究-实践伙伴关系进行的。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）；(2)调查培训在帮助辅导员制定支持游客学习所需的基于实践的促进策略方面的作用。本研究的STEM内容为物理科学。先前的工作产生了两个工具，构成了促进框架的一部分（参与实践矩阵和三个促进途径），帮助教育工作者根据参观者与展品的互动方式确定适当的目标。框架中最终工具的开发、促进策略和前两个工具的改进将使用基于设计的实施研究（DBIR）方法进行。数据收集和分析将由UCSB研究生（研究人员）和MOXI教育工作者（实践者）组成的研究-实践团队指导和完成；MOXI教育工作者既是参与者又是研究者。数据收集活动包括：使用游客和教育工作者佩戴的视点摄像机的视频数据；教育工作者和访客访谈；对培训计划的观察；和教育家的反思。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。访谈和反思包括在实地地点收集数据。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学习的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，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对深度学习的理解。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。

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.