Understanding Facilitation Techniques for Hands-On Chemistry Activities

ABSTRACT

Educators play a key role in facilitating interactive learning experiences in informal science education settings, such as science centers and museums. Despite their importance, research around facilitation has generally focused on visitor impacts and not the strategies used by the educators themselves. The ChemAttitudes project studied and characterized facilitation moves used by educators during hands-on chemistry activities with visitors at two science museums. Building on previous research done by the Exploratorium, the project team defined a framework of three overarching categories of facilitation techniques: “Invite participation,” “Support exploration,” and “Deepen understanding.” (referenced in short form as “Invite,” “Support,” and “Deepen”). Each of these categories also included distinct facilitation moves that educators used throughout an interaction with visitors. Overall, data indicated that educators used Support moves most often, Deepen moves less frequently, and Invite moves the least. Although educators almost always started an interaction with Invite, afterwards, they moved flexibly back and forth between the three types of moves in a non-linear order in response to the visitors. The framework and findings from this project can be used to support training and professional development for other informal educators using hands-on activities with visitors.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal science education
• facilitation
• educators
• professional development
• hands-on activities
• chemistry
• inquiry-based
• general public

Acknowledgments

As a collaboration between the National Informal STEM Education Network, the American Chemical Society, and the Museum of Science, Boston, many people contributed to this research project. The authors would particularly like to thank the project PIs (Larry Bell, Mary Kirchhoff, Rae Ostman, and David Sittenfeld), activity developers (Thor Carlson, Angela Damery, Susan Heilman, Emily Hostetler, KC Miller, Jill Neblett, and Becky Smick), and former members of the research team (Nikki Lewis, Sarah Pfeifle, and Kaleen Tison Povis). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments.

2 Petrich, Wilkinson, and Bevan, “It Looks Like Fun.”

3 National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments.

4 Allen and Crowley, “Challenging Beliefs, Practices, and Content”; Tran, “Work of Science Museum Educator.”

5 Andre, Durksen and Volman, “Museums as Avenues of Learning”; Bevan and Xanthoudaki, “Professional Development for Museum Educators”; Falk and Dierking, Learning from Museums; Falk and Dierking. Museum Experience Revisited; Renni and McClafferty, “Science Centres and Science Learning.”

6 Hein, “Progressive Education and Museum Education”; Tran, “Teaching Science in Museums.”

7 Gutwill and Allen, “Facilitating Family Group Inquiry”; Litts, “Making Learning”; National Research Council, Surrounded by Science; Pattison et al. “Staff-Facilitated Family Learning.”

8 Pattison et al. “Staff-Facilitated Family Learning.”

9 Bevan and Xanthoudaki, “Professional Development for Museum Educators”; Gutwill, Hido, and Sindorf, “Research to Practice.”

10 Anderson et al., “Design Strategies”; Zare, “Where’s the chemistry”; Etine, Scared to Death; National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators 2018; TNS BMRB, Public Attitudes to Chemistry.

11 The Tinkering Studio, “Facilitation Field Guide”; Bevan et al., “Learning Through STEM-Rich Tinkering”; Kloser, “Identifying Science Teaching Practices”; Michaels and O’Connor, Talk Science Primer; National Research Council, Surrounded by Science; National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments; Pattison et al. “Staff-Facilitated Family Learning.”

12 Meyer, Bevan, and Garza, “Museums Afterschool.”

13 The Tinkering Studio, “Facilitation Field Guide.”

14 Bevan et al., “Learning Through STEM-Rich Tinkering”; Kloser, “Identifying Science Teaching Practices”; Michaels and O’Connor, Talk Science Primer; National Research Council, Surrounded by Science; National Research Council, Learning Science in Informal Environments; Pattison et al. “Staff-Facilitated Family Learning.”

15 Due to poor audio quality, some activities were excluded from analysis. Ultimately, 11 activities were included in the facilitation analyses.

16 Ostman, NISE Network Program Development.

17 Jenson et al., “Perceptions of Self-efficacy”; Olson, et al., “Applying Constant Comparative Method.”

18 The Tinkering Studio, “Facilitation Field Guide.”

Additional information

Funding

This article is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation [grant number DRL-1612482].

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Kunz Kollmann

Elizabeth Kunz Kollmann is the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Museum of Science, Boston. She has worked in the museum field for over 15 years, focusing her research on science communication, public engagement with science, and learning in informal science environments. Ms Kollmann was a co-PI of the ChemAttitudes grant, leading the museum research team as they studied how design and educator facilitation leads to increases in participant interest, relevance, and self-efficacy towards chemistry.

Allison Anderson

Allison Anderson is a Research and Evaluation Associate at the Museum of Science, Boston. Her work at the Museum over the last five years has included a wide range of experiences, including multi-site projects, program development, and exhibition evaluation. She has been a supporting member of the research and evaluation team for multiple NISE (National Informal STEM Education) Network projects, including the ChemAttitudes project.

Marta Beyer

Marta Beyer participated in this project as Research and Evaluation Associate at the Museum of Science, Boston. She has worked in the museum field for over 10 years, contributing to internal and cross-organizational projects. Her evaluation and research work has looked at informal learning opportunities and professional development offered by museums. Beyer has been integrally involved in the professional impact evaluation studies for the NISE Network and was a key part of the research team for the ChemAttitudes project.

Hever Velázquez

Hever Velázquez participated in this project as an Evaluation and Research Associate, Science Museum of Minnesota. Velázquez’s experience includes six years of combined experience in the research and evaluation for ISE programs and bilingual (English and Spanish) exhibit projects at science museums across a wide range of topics. Velázquez’s work advocates for the consideration and use of culturally responsive practices to serve all audiences with a focus on underrepresented communities.

Marjorie Bequette

Marjorie Bequette is Director of Evaluation and Research in Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Her research interests include learning in museum settings and the development of equity practices with public audiences and museum staff members.

Gretchen Haupt

Gretchen Haupt is an Evaluation and Research Associate at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. She has over a decade of experience in audience research in informal learning environments, with a particular focus on exhibits and programs at science centers and museums. Gretchen supported multiple NSF-funded grants through the NISE Network project.

Owen Weitzman

Owen Weitzman participated in this project as a Research and Evaluation Assistant at the Museum of Science, Boston. He worked at the Museum for three years, during which time he supported the evaluation of a range of informal science education efforts, both at the MOS and in conjunction with the NISE Network.