THE IMPACT OF A SCIENCE MUSEUM INVOKED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT (SMILE) ON STUDENTS

Abstract

This study aims to develop an ESSMIM (Earth System-Science Museum Instructional Module) and evaluate its impacts on 11th grade high-school students’ expected and actual perceptions of a Science Museum invoked Learning Environment (SMiLE). The ESSMIM was designed following the principles of the “Earth System Education (ESE) learning cycle mode” (Chang, 2005): Engage, Explore, Analysis/Explain, as well as Apply and Evaluate. In terms of research design, a one group pretest posttest research design was adopted. The research subjects were a group of 11th grade students from a national senior high-school in Taiwan. Students’ expected and actual perceptions of SMiLE were investigated through the “SMiLE Inventory”. The results of this study showed that: (1) students’ scores, of expected SMiLE Inventory, both before and after the experimental teaching were higher than their actual SMiLE scores, (2) compared with previous actual experiences, ESSMIM created a SMiLE which was closer to students’ expectation, and (3) after experiencing the ESSMIM, the difference between students’ expectations and their actual experience of SMiLE was reduced. Key words: earth science curriculum; learning environment; perception; science museum teaching.