Informal Educational Settings Research Articles

Design Thinking Education: A Comparison of Massive Open Online Courses

The popularity of design thinking is soaring, both as an approach to innovation and as a tool for non-designers seeking to gain a strategic edge over the competition. As more and more people take advantage of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to bolster their skill sets, it comes as no surprise that design thinking courses have cropped up across various disciplines worldwide, in formal and informal educational settings. In this article, we report on our research into design thinking courses available to anyone online. Our study explored and categorized the different types of design thinking MOOCs available in June 2017. It reveals the what (content), how (pedagogy and assessment), and why of online design thinking courses. The findings we discuss here can support design thinking education not only via the web, but also more generally.

Using Dialogues to Explore Genetics, Ancestry, and Race

Teaching the topic of genetics in relationship to ancestry and race generates many questions, and requires a teaching strategy that encourages perspective-based exploration and discussion. We have developed a set of dialogues for discussing the complex science of genetics, ancestry, and race that is contextualized in real human interactions and that contends with the social and ethical implications of this science. This article provides some brief historical and scientific context for these dialogues, describes their development, and relates how we have used them in different ways to engage diverse groups of science learners. The dialogue series can be incorporated into classroom or informal science education settings. After listening to or performing the dialogues and participating in a discussion, students will: (1) recognize misunderstandings about the relationship between DNA and race; (2) describe how DNA testing services assign geographic ancestry; (3) explain how scientific findings have been used historically to promote institutionalized racism and the role personal biases can play in science; (4) identify situations in their own life that have affected their understanding of genetics and race; and (5) discuss the potential consequences of the racialization of medicine as well as other fallacies about the connection of science and race.

A Child's-Eye View: An Examination of Point-of-View Camera Use in Four Informal Education Settings

ABSTRACTA point-of-view (POV) camera is a video recording device attached to the person of a research participant. The cameras collect observational data from the individual wearing them and those in close proximity. The cameras can be used to collect data that provide researchers with an immersive view of visitor experience by documenting visits from the perspective of the individual. The purpose of this article is to outline the benefits and weaknesses of using POV cameras for answering broad visitor studies research questions, compare their use to other common methods for visitor studies research, and examine their use within four informal educational settings—a zoo, a museum exhibit, a bus tour, and an afterschool program. In particular, the POV cameras are useful for capturing data beyond a single exhibit, recording the dialogue and gestures of individual visitors, and documenting interactions among group members. POV cameras may be especially useful for answering questions about hands-on activities such as building or tinkering. Limitations that should be considered when attempting to use POV cameras include participants tampering with the recording, the inability to see facial expressions, and the limited angle of captured video. Care should also be taken to minimize the discomfort of visitors in studies utilizing POV cameras.

Experience

We present lessons learned related to data collection and analysis from 5 years of experience with the eTextbook system OpenDSA. The use of such cyberlearning systems is expanding rapidly in both formal and informal educational settings. Although the precise issues related to any such project are idiosyncratic based on the data collection technology and goals of the project, certain types of data collection problems will be common. We begin by describing the nature of the data transmitted between the student’s client machine and the database server, and our initial database schema for storing interaction log data. We describe many problems that we encountered, with the nature of the problems categorized as syntactic-level data collection issues, issues with relating events to users, or issues with tracking users over time. Relating events to users and tracking the time spent on tasks are both prerequisites to converting syntactic-level interaction streams to semantic-level behavior needed for higher-order analysis of the data. Finally, we describe changes made to our database schema that helped to resolve many of the issues that we had encountered. These changes help advance our ultimate goal of encouraging a change from ineffective learning behavior by students to more productive behavior.

The Views of Prospective Classroom Teachers on Cultural Heritage-themed Museum Education Course

Culture as a complex unity comprised of knowledge, beliefs, art, ethics and customs collectively relates to the acquired skills by individuals as the members of one larger community. By virtue of this feature, museums have been specialized as informal educational settings aiding the teaching of tangible and intangible heritage. Museum education serves a long list of purposes ranging from familiarizing with one’s own culture and recognizing other cultures through a multidimensional and tolerant perspective and better internalizing intercultural similarities and differences in addition to effectively bolstering the awareness on preserving cultural assets. This research was carried out to demonstrate the views of prospective classroom teachers, having studied “cultural heritage” -themed Museum Education Course, in Ankara University Department of Classroom Teaching, on the implementation of museums in cultural heritage education; and to monitor skills of concerned participants in utilizing museums for educational purposes during their in-service teaching experiences.

The Aesthetics of Astrophysics: How to Make Appealing Color-composite Images that Convey the Science

Astronomy has a rich tradition of using color photography and imaging, for visualization in research as well as for sharing scientific discoveries in formal and informal education settings (i.e., for “public outreach”). In the modern era, astronomical research has benefitted tremendously from electronic cameras that allow data and images to be generated and analyzed in a purely digital form with a level of precision that previously was not possible. Advances in image-processing software have also enabled color-composite images to be made in ways that are much more complex than with darkroom techniques, not only at optical wavelengths but across the electromagnetic spectrum. The Internet has made it possible to rapidly disseminate these images to eager audiences. Alongside these technological advances, there have been gains in understanding how to make images that are scientifically illustrative as well as aesthetically pleasing. Studies have also given insights on how the public interprets astronomical images and how that can be different than professional astronomers. An understanding of these differences will help in the creation of images that are meaningful to both groups. In this invited review, we discuss the techniques behind making color-composite images as well as examine the factors one should consider when doing so, whether for data visualization or public consumption. We also provide a brief history of astronomical imaging with a focus on the origins of the “modern era” during which distribution of high-quality astronomical images to the public is a part of nearly every professional observatory’s public outreach. We review relevant research into the expectations and misconceptions that often affect the public’s interpretation of these images.

The Role of Emotion in Informal Science Learning: Testing an Exploratory Model

ABSTRACTAlthough there is substantial research on the effect of emotions on educational outcomes in the classroom, relatively little is known about how emotion affects learning in informal science contexts. We examined the role of emotion in the context of an informal science learning experience by utilizing a path model to investigate the relationships among emotional arousal, valence, attention, environmental values and learning outcomes. Sixty undergraduate and graduate students participated in one of two treatments consisting of watching an exciting or neutral nature documentary video, reading an associated narrative, and taking a post‐test. Our findings suggested that higher emotional arousal, less pleasant feelings about the content, and stronger environmental values led to greater short‐term learning outcomes. We discuss our findings in relation to current understandings of emotion and learning in informal science education settings.

Experiential learning in informal educational settings

There is a strong scholarly debate about the differences between experiential education and informal education. A variety of terms have been used to apply to informal education, including extra-curricular activities, non-formal education, co-curricular activities and allied activities. Scholars have distinguished between three different forms of learning: formal learning, within school classroom settings; informal education, as a “lifelong process” of ongoing learning through exposure to different experiences; and non-formal education, which relates to organised educational activities outside of the formal, school framework (Dave 1976; La Belle 1981, 1982). In this special issue, we are taking the approach that experiential education refers to a specific pedagogy, which can take place in formal, informal and non-formal settings and contexts. Reuven Kahane (1997, 2004) was the first renowned scholar to delineate the eight elements of experiential education, which he calls “codes of behaviour” within formal, informal and non-formal settings. These include: “voluntarism” (free choice), “multiplexity” (wide spectrum of activities), “symmetry” (balanced relationships without a hierarchy), “dualism” (expressing contesting views), “moratorium” (postponement of commitments), “modularity” (eclectic construction of activities), “expressive instrumentalism” (activities performed both for their own sake and as stepping stones towards the achievement of future goals) and “pragmatic symbolism” (ascribing meaning to symbols) (Kahane 1997, pp. 23–30), and the integration of experiential and instrumental activities, enabling a meaningful educational encounter, as discussed in our own article included in this issue. In their overview of informal education, Shlomi Romi and Mirjam Schmida (2009) stress the educational advantages of non-formal education, that is education outside of the formal classroom. As they elaborate, this involves drawing on free choice and individual decision-making involving a democratic process, which is more relevant to education in the postmodern era. This is the main focus of our special issue.

“Failure Is a Major Component of Learning Anything”: The Role of Failure in the Development of STEM Professionals

The term failure typically evokes negative connotations in educational settings and is likely to be accompanied by negative emotional states, low sense of confidence, and lack of persistence. These negative emotional and behavioral states may factor into an individual not pursuing a degree or career in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). This is of particular concern considering the low number of women and underrepresented minorities pursing and working in a STEM field. Utilizing interview data with professionals across STEM, we sought to understand the role failure played in the persistence of individuals who enter and pursue paths toward STEM-related careers. Findings highlighted how participants’ experiences with failure (1) shaped their outlooks or views of failure, (2) shaped their trajectories within STEM, and (3) provided them with additional skills or qualities. A few differences based on participants’ sex, field, and highest degree also manifested in our analysis. We expect the results from this study to add research-based results to the current conversation around whether experiences with failure should be part of formal and informal educational settings and standards-based practices.

Inspiring Online Collaborative STEM Learning

ABSTRACTEducators are advocating a variety of 21st century technologies to increase student engagement and prepare them for the modern workplace. As part of this effort this paper describes the development of several introductory laboratory activities which enhance online collaborative skills in the context of group collaborations. The experiments mostly deal with measurement and error in the context of mathematical modeling. They inculcate online collaborative skills including group writing, collection of experimental data, student feedback, and assessment using forms, spreadsheets with data pooling, real-time graphing/computations, and discussions using chat. These are all available in Google Drive, a free cloudbased application. We have also introduced student collaborative-pair computational spreadsheet assignments, and results of two projects in general chemistry are presented. Building formative assessment into these activities allows for immediate adjustment to instruction. This approach could be used from middle school through the undergraduate level. It can be implemented both in informal education or formal classroom settings by enhancing interactions with remote partners. Student evaluations have been very positive for the variety of activities, as well as from workshop feedback from high school teachers.

An investigation of the role of learning conversations in youth’s authoring of science identities during an informal science camp

ABSTRACTIn this investigation, we examined how youth during learning conversations at an informal science education camp negotiated and authored identities as learners of science. Using identity theory as our analytical lens, we investigated by application of qualitative methodology the socially constructed nature of youth’s identities. We focused on the ways in which learning conversations at the science camp prompted changes in learners’ identity as they engaged in science. Data collection included videotaped observations, field notes, interviews, and journal entries. Interaction analysis and constant comparison were used to develop analytic lenses. The results of our study highlighted the unique affordances of informal science education settings for supporting youth’s identity work in science. In particular, we describe how youth negotiated and authored identities as learners of science through positioning, discourse, and performance. Our study contributed essential insights drawn from empirical data on how youth in an informal science education experience—a science camp—socially negotiated their identities during learning conversations.

English Language Learning in the Margins: Toward a Movement to Help Service-industry Workers in Thailand

This paper examined the largely unexplored effects of exposure to foreign customers’ language (e.g., English) as informal learning for service-industry workers, a pattern common in developing countries where resources to learn English were not widely accessible to lower-status workers in the labor market. It also pointed out the paucity of research on service-industry workers’ language development in applied and sociolinguistic literature. This pilot study adopted two analytical tools, the magnet of trend’s model and the concept of “quadrant,” to highlight the English learning opportunities provided for the service-industry workers in a developing country, and explored how the development of their language abilities enabled them to expand and navigate more quadrants. Field visits and qualitative interviews were undertaken to gather data from the sample, consisted of 200 participants. Broad content analysis conventions were deployed to interpret interview data and field notes derived from observations, aimed at combining both emic and etic (interactional) data. The paper reported the role of English-speaking customers as informal tutors to facilitate these workers’ English language development. This paper turned to different case studies of exemplar workers who reported following the English-for-customer (EFC) pattern, because they illustrated two themes common across the sample studied. The results revealed that, among these workers, (1) educational background and (2) exposure to English-speaking customers in an informal educational setting may contribute to fostering the learning of English.

Design-based mathematics workshops

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a workshop model for engaging children and parents in mathematics activities in public libraries or other informal education settings. Design/methodology/approach – This paper explores a workshop model for helping the school-aged children learn mathematics outside the school. The model includes five workshop sessions and designs the parent’s role in the mathematics activities. Each workshop session has both a mathematics task activity and a user interface design activity. The model was implemented in a major Canadian city and a major Chinese city over a period of one month. This paper presents the workshop attendees’ experiences and their feedback on the workshop design. It also presents several suggestions on the design of such workshops. Findings – The parents acknowledged that they learned about how mathematics is currently taught in schools and appreciated the opportunities to interact with their children in the workshops. The children participated in the workshops actively and enjoyed the design sessions the most. The potential of using design activities to help children learn mathematics concepts is recognized. Research limitations/implications – The findings suggest that future workshops should provide a structure to the parents’ engagement in design activities, offer one design project that spans several design sessions and set aside time for families to mingle and share experiences with each other. A big limitation of this paper is the small sample size – 12 families participated in the workshops on each site. Although the paper offered rich data about the participants’ experiences, a larger sample would have made the findings more generalizable and conclusive. Practical implications – Computer technologies such as iPad and tablets are increasingly common as public library resources; yet the integration of these technologies into library programs is falling behind. This paper offers one example of how such integration can bring benefits to the patrons, encouraging more considerations to be put on this aspect in library practice. Originality/value – Although many programs are offered in public libraries that facilitate children to learn mathematics concepts, very less research has been reported on the design of these programs. In addition, the existing programs have not considered the inclusion of parent–child design activities for mathematics learning engagement. This paper reports an empirical study that addresses these research gaps. The encouraging results call for more investigations on this workshop model.

Toward a New Model of Science Learning, Teaching, and Communication

ABSTRACTSci-Toons is a new, experimental, teaching and learning approach that engages students in materials science research via interaction with experts, narrative, visual representations, iterative feedback and multimedia platforms. Based on a model (the Multimedia Theoretical Learning Framework) and multimedia design principles, Sci-Toon Creation Group (SCG) members, which include both science and non-science majors, work with faculty to produce video animations dealing with scientific topics. The creative process of producing scripts for two selected Sci-Toons videos dealing with materials science subjects (Graphene and Conductive Polymers) are discussed; initial and final versions of each are combined through use of Word Clouds.The videos that are produced are distributed via the internet, providing instruction and information about materials sciences and other STEM topics. Demographic data about the types of individuals downloading these Sci-Toons are provided.We conclude that Sci-Toons can be used in both formal and informal educational settings for science learning and teaching as well as in communicating materials science concepts to broad audiences including females and underrepresented minorities students.

Playful Constructivism: Making Sense of Digital Games for Learning and Creativity Through Play, Design, and Participation

The goal of this article is to provide a conceptual framework to better understand digital games in learning and creative contexts through the dimensions of play, design, and participation. This framework can be used as a guiding tool for the selection, implementation, and evaluation of game-based approaches in formal and informal educational settings, as well as a blueprint for making sense of playful learning and creativity in virtual worlds and technology-mediated environments. In essence, this article seeks to answer the question “What are digital games and how can we make sense of them for learning and creativity?” The proposed visual model and conceptual framework, here defined as Playful Constructivism, is grounded on the learning theories of Situated Cognition, Social Constructivism, and Constructionism, and draws from play and game studies, design-based learning, and affinity spaces research. This framework is not intended as the “ultimate” conceptualization of game-based learning, but rather as an agile tool that can guide scholars, practitioners, and students through the affordances, challenges, and opportunities of implementing and using digital games in learning and creative contexts.

Reporting back environmental exposure data and free choice learning.

Reporting data back to study participants is increasingly being integrated into exposure and biomonitoring studies. Informal science learning opportunities are valuable in environmental health literacy efforts and report back efforts are filling an important gap in these efforts. Using the University of Arizona’s Metals Exposure Study in Homes, this commentary reflects on how community-engaged exposure assessment studies, partnered with data report back efforts are providing a new informal education setting and stimulating free-choice learning. Participants are capitalizing on participating in research and leveraging their research experience to meet personal and community environmental health literacy goals. Observations from report back activities conducted in a mining community support the idea that reporting back biomonitoring data reinforces free-choice learning and this activity can lead to improvements in environmental health literacy. By linking the field of informal science education to the environmental health literacy concepts, this commentary demonstrates how reporting data back to participants is tapping into what an individual is intrinsically motivated to learn and how these efforts are successfully responding to community-identified education and research needs.

Instructional Design: Skills to Benefit the Library Profession

Librarians in many types of libraries frequently find themselves positioned as instructors in formal and informal educational settings. Librarians can help ensure that learner needs are better defined and addressed by gaining basic competency in instructional design (ID), an intentional process used to create effective, efficient educational and training programs. Additionally, instructional design skills have the potential to benefit librarians in nonteaching roles. This paper examines existing library literature to determine how librarians can benefit from ID skills and to identify core ID competencies for the profession, and suggests opportunities to investigate how librarians might best acquire these skills.

A cross-case analysis of three Native Science Field Centers

Native Science Field Centers (NSFCs) were created to engage youth and adults in environmental science activities through the integration of traditional Native ways of knowing (understanding about the natural world based on centuries of observation including philosophy, worldview, cosmology, and belief systems of Indigenous peoples), Native languages, and Western science concepts. This paper focuses on the Blackfeet Native Science Field Center, the Lakota Native Science Field Center, and the Wind River Native Science Field Center. One of the long-term, overarching goals of these NSFCs was to stimulate the interest of Native American students in ways that encouraged them to pursue academic and career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A great deal can be learned from the experiences of the NSFCs in terms of effective educational strategies, as well as advantages and challenges in blending Native ways of knowing and Western scientific knowledge in an informal science education setting. Hopa Mountain—a Bozeman, Montana-based nonprofit—partnered with the Blackfeet Community College on the Blackfeet Reservation, Fremont County School District #21 on the Wind River Reservation, and Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation to cooperatively establish the Native Science Field Centers. This paper presents a profile of each NSFC and highlights their program components and accomplishments.

Erratum to: Instructional guidance in microblogging-supported learning: insights from a multiple case study

Tian Luo is an Assistant Professor in the Instructional Design and Technology program at Old Dominion University. She has received her Ph.D. in Instructional Technology from Ohio University and had worked as an Instructional Design Consultant at Muhlenberg College for one year. Her research interests center on using social media and social technologies to facilitate student learning in both formal and informal educational settings and designing collaborative and authentic learning environments supported and enhanced by various emerging web-based technologies. Her research has been published at British Journal of Educational Technology, Journal of Innovations in Education and Teaching International, Journal of Information Technology Education: Innovations in Practice and various peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Her research has also been presented at multiple professional conferences in the field of educational and instructional technology, including AERA, AECT and SITE.

Speaking of Belonging: Learning to Be "Good Citizens" in the Context of Voluntary Language Coaching Projects in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This article explores citizenship education for adult immigrants through informal language education in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Based on data collected over thirteen months of ethnographic research among volunteer Dutch language coaches in Amsterdam, the primary methods used in this study were in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation. While the primary focus of this article is on the ways in which informal educational settings contribute to processes of adult citizenship education, this paper also underscores some of the perceived barriers to integration faced by adult immigrants in the Netherlands. Adopting a Foucauldian theoretical approach to governmentality, this paper considers how volunteer Dutch language coaches both reproduce and challenge contemporary discourses around citizenship and belonging in Dutch society. Experiences and expressions of citizenship among volunteer Dutch language coaches reveal how entangled discourses of cultural difference and neoliberal “active” citizenship shape state and everyday notions of good citizenship practice and integration.