A naturalistic study of children and their parents in family learning courses in science

Abstract

During the 1960s and 1970s a number of family learning projects evolved, most of which focused on pre-schoolers and their parents. The goal of some of these programs was to provide enjoyable, structured experiences in which parents and their children learned together. Recently, a number of institutions have been sponsoring enrichment science classes or learning experiences for parents and older children. The study described here is based on a project funded by the National Science Foundation (DISE No. 07872) which was attempting to show that it was possible to increase scientific literacy of two different age groups by simultaneously exposing parents and their middle school children to short courses in science. The project is an outgrowth of a study previously r e p o d (Gennaro, Bullock, Br Alden, 1980) carried out at the Minnesota Zoological Gardens. The study is based on data obtained during the first two years of the project and used various data gathering pmedure.~ such as the use of questionnaires, interviews, observations, and cognitive testing. It was found that children register for the courses primarily because of interest in the subject matter of the courses and that parents register because of their desire to n u t u x the child and the child's interest in the subject matter of the course. Both parents and children made significant gains in learning as measured by subject matter tests. Participants reported that the experience was both enjoyable and valuable. Children's attitudes toward their parents and the course were sigpificantly higher if the children perceived a highly cooperative learning environment with their parents. Parents who scored in the medium or high range on the pretest had significantly more interactions with their children concerning information about course tasks than those who scored low on the pretest.

Family-Based STS Education: a New Approach

“…Leichter, 1974Leichter, , 1978Fey, 1977;Katz, 1978). We can also find several reports which indicate positive effects of leaming with family members on science learning (Gennaro et al, 1980;Ostlund et al, 1985;Gennaro et al, 1986). The framework of &dquo;family as an educational setting for STS&dquo; holds promise.…”

“…Most STS education programs are for formal school settings, as mentioned above. And some STS programs at informal social institutions, such as science museums, may take a complementary role to school-based programs, just as successful experiments in science learning programs (Katz, 1978;Ostlund et al, 1985). School is, by nature, an institution which is invented to carry out the education function of a society effectively.…”

Family Involvement in Science Education: What are the Outcomes for Parents and Students?

“…Families doing science activities or learning science at schools or other institutions is a key feature of some programmes (e.g., Barrow, 1995;Barrow, Knipping, and Litherland, 1996;Beane, 1990;Canizo, 1995;Chandler and Parsons, 1995;Holmes, 1998;Jones, 1996;Ostlund, Gennaro, and Dobbert, 1985;Rand and Gibb, 1989). Typically, children and their parents participate in science activities held at a church, zoo, or school.…”

“…Gennaro, Hereid and Ostlund (1986) conducted a follow-up investigation to the study conducted by Ostlund, Gennaro and Dobbert (1985). They collected data two to three years after the parents and children had participated in a family learning in science class.…”

“…An expansion of the programme described by Gennaro, Bullock and Alden (1980) was offered by Ostlund, Gennaro and Dobbert (1985). They studied middle school children and their parents in family learning classes in Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 03:55 17 June 2016 science.…”