Adolescents learning with exhibits and explainers: the case of Maloka

ABSTRACT

This qualitative and exploratory study aimed to understand the experience of adolescents during visits outside the school context in science museums and centres, and how the free-choice learning processes are constructed in this context. We analyzed the visits of four adolescents groups, from public schools, to Maloka (Bogotá, Colombia), and observed the relations of the visitors with their peers, with the exhibits, and with the explainers. For this objective, we examine video and audio recordings in terms of types of interaction and conversational content, seeking to answer: Is the explainer a necessary component of a visit to promote sustained cognitive engagement, or do non-guided activities also create enough interest to promote and sustain cognitive engagement? Active meaning-making was observed during the interactions with exhibits and explainers. In the latter case, the presence of the explainer appears to lead to refinement and complexification were in the sense making and activity of adolescents. In accordance with their sustained engagements and motivations, they mobilized knowledge and previous experiences in the relation with exhibits, in an engaged and autonomous manner, creating learning opportunities based on free-choice, which was reflected in their discussions about scientific themes or in the manual, mental and cultural interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• science centres
• free-choice learning
• explainers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Luisa Massarani http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5710-7242

Lara Mucci Poenaru http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9404-536X

Jessica Norberto Rocha http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9754-3874

Shawn Rowe http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2162-0551

Sigrid Falla http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4072-9026

Notes

1 According to Amorocho (2011, pp. 50–51), Maloka’s educational team is composed of professionals from both the technical and technological areas as well as teaching degrees. Their initial and continuing training is guided by a participatory and dialogical perspective, taking into account a methodology of the museum that seeks to create new mediation practices that support autonomous engagement of the visitors, promoting their active and ongoing participation.

2 This study was carried out under the oversight of the National Institute of Public Communication of Science and Technology and Musa Iberoamericana: Red de Museos y centros de ciencias – Cyted, and with the support of the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Supporting Research in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Faperj).

3 In this study a GoPro camera was placed on the head of one of the visitors in each group. The aim in using this device was to record the experience from the visitor's perspective; the camera's compact design and positioning on the visitor's head made it easy to move about, while the panoramic field of view replicated the visitor's gaze fairly closely.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico: [grant number 440675/2015-4]; Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro: [grant number 232681].