The role of a museum‐based science education program in promoting content knowledge and science motivation

Abstract

Informal learning settings such as museums have been identified as opportunities to enhance students' knowledge and motivation in science and to optimize the connection between science and everyday life. The present study assessed the role of a self-paced science education program (situated in a medical science museum) in enhancing students' program-related content knowledge, self-efficacy, valuing, and aspirations. The study also investigated whether gains in content knowledge recall and motivation (as relevant to biology, anatomy, health) are associated with reported improvements in beliefs about health practices relevant to everyday life. The program aligned with a well-established tripartite engagement framework conforming to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement principles as well as principles underpinning guided discovery learning. Among a sample of N ¼ 167 (upper) elementary and secondary school students (aged 10-16 years, M ¼ 12.62 years), we found significant gains in content knowledge recall (achievement) and science motivation (self-efficacy, valuing, aspirations) following participation in the science program. Additionally, gains in content knowledge recall and motivation were associated with reported improvements in beliefs about everyday health practices. #

Becoming a naturalist: Interest development across the learning ecology

“…Much of the work examining interest is done in studies conducted in school or school-like settings (Ainley et al, 2002). However, informal learning settings, such as science museums and science clubs, have also been shown to trigger interest (Azevedo, 2011(Azevedo, , 2013Dohn, 2011) and increase engagement in science material and knowledge acquisition (Martin, Durksen, Williamson, Kiss, & Ginns, 2016). Field-based, informal environmental education and nature exploration have also been shown to support science interest development (Zoldosova & Prokop, 2006).…”

An examination of the interactions between museum educators and students on a school visit to science museum

“…Interest refers to the enjoyment that one feels when engaging in a task (Sinatra, Heddy, & Lombardi, 2015). Furthermore, emotional engagement draws on positive and negative feelings, orientations, and affect inherent in the learning process (Martin, Durksen, Williamson, Kiss, & Ginns, 2016). In our study we only note some of the factors that define emotional engagements, focusing specifically on observable (verbal and non-verbal) positive reactions.…”

Gender, complexity, and science for all: Systemizing and its impact on motivation to learn science for different science subjects

“…However, in the literature, many suggestions for better science teaching can be found that clearly involve social activities and thus could activate empathizing skills, like science center outreach labs (Itzek-Greulich & Vollmer, 2017), museum visits (Martin, Durksen, Williamson, Kiss, & Ginns, 2016), collaborative projects (Bryan et al, 2011), integrating students' existing interests (Hagay & Baram-Tsabari, 2015), science story telling (Polman & Hope, 2014), fostering autonomy, relatedness and belonging (Andersen & Nielsen, 2011), preventing feelings of disgust and rejection (Randler, Hummel, & W€ ust-Ackermann, 2012), knowledgeable, inspiring, enthusiastic, and caring teachers (Bryan et al, 2011;Keller, Neumann, & Fischer, 2017) that take students' emotions into account (King, Ritchie, Sandhu, Henderson & Boland, 2017), and family and friends that encourage them to study science (Mujtaba & Reiss, 2012;Simpkins, Price, & Garcia, 2015).…”