Dimensions of Science Promoted in Museum Experiences for Teachers

ABSTRACT

Science museums are increasingly being recognized as sites for teacher education. In museums, teachers can develop content knowledge, learn new instructional approaches, gain confidence in teaching science, and develop ideas for how to use museum resources in their classrooms. Despite these reported benefits, little is known about the specific dimensions of science typically introduced in museum experiences for teachers. Thus, we examined peer-reviewed accounts of 31 educational experiences for teachers in science, science and technology, and natural history museums to consider the conceptual, procedural, epistemic, and social dimensions of science promoted in these experiences. Although conceptual and procedural dimensions were frequently addressed, social and epistemic dimensions rarely featured. Recommendations for future work to address this gap are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• epistemology
• museum
• professional development
• teacher education

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Amy Bedford, Jenna Carlson, Jonathan Eakle, Jenny Ingber, Curtis Pyke, Lara Smetana, Binyu Yang, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Notes

¹ An advanced search of the National Science Foundation Award database for element code 1795, keyword museum, active and expired projects, generated 21 results as of February 8, 2018.

² For the purposes of this discussion, we describe epistemology in terms of goals for student learning and remain agnostic about the ontological form of those epistemologies. However, we do acknowledge that some of the literature cited offers conflicting viewpoints on the matter of what constitutes epistemology.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. (1238157) and (1439819), and 100Kin10. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or 100Kin10.