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

最近的研究主张向教育实践转变，让学习者作为共享的公共努力，积极为科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)做出贡献，而不是将他们的参与限制在先前建立的知识的构建上。在决定什么是值得知道的以及学习如何进行的过程中，优先考虑学习者的机构可能会通过集中激励不同年龄、性别和背景的人学习的知识、文化实践和社会互动来创造更公平和更具包容性的学习体验。在非正式的学习环境中，家庭的社交互动是STEM学习的关键途径，科学中心和博物馆已经制定了策略，以促进家庭在STEM展品上的持续参与和对话。然而，展品往往引导参观者探索预先确定的洞察力，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。Maker运动中强调技能培养和创造性表达的做法，以及博物馆中邀请参观者以相应方式为展品做贡献的参与式做法，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，关于这些做法如何扩大规模，以及家庭本身如何应对这些努力，人们知之甚少，特别是针对科学中心和博物馆旨在服务的不同家庭观众。此外，尽管性别和种族都会影响非正式环境中的学习，但研究往往将参与者沿着一个单一的维度分开，掩盖了家庭经历中的重要细微差别。通过解决这些突出的问题，本研究回应了推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划的目标，该计划旨在促进基于证据的理解，为非正式环境中的公众设计和开发STEM学习机会。这包括提供多种途径，以扩大对STEM学习体验的参与，并推动在非正式环境中对STEM学习的创新研究。研究将涉及(1)家庭在探索STEM展品时如何看待和行动他们的集体认知代理(即，他们如何共同努力谈判和追求自己的学习目标)；(2)家庭的代理表达是否以及如何受到性别和种族的影响；以及(3)哪些展品设计特征支持尽可能广泛的受众的代理表达。研究研究将使用访谈和观察性案例研究，在一系列具有不同负担能力的展品上，将家庭的认知机构作为一种共享的社会实践来检验。文化历史活动理论和交叉方法将指导对家庭活动的定性分析，将家庭活动作为受自然环境和社会背景调节的系统。教育活动将包括研究人员、展品设计师、教育工作者和促进者(高中和大学一级的楼层工作人员)之间的持续合作，使用变化实验室模式。该小组将利用这项研究的新发现来创建一个反思工具，以指导在STEM展品上发展更具包容性的学习体验，并制定一套支持家庭表达代理的设计原则。纵向民族志研究将记录整个项目中包容性展品设计实践的发展，以及变化实验室参与者如何随着时间的推移发展他们对学习和展品设计的社会文化观点。在变化实验室中分析这些实践中的变化将使我们更深入地理解在博物馆基础设施变化的过程中，什么是有效的，什么是困难的，什么是不会发生的。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做法，为尽可能多的家庭观众培养对学习过程的主人翁意识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.