Supporting Visitor-Centered Learning Through Practice-Based Facilitation

ABSTRACT

Learning by engaging in the practices of a discipline (practice-based learning) provides museum visitors with opportunities to construct understandings that build on their prior experiences and interests. However, effectively facilitating such learning experiences is difficult. We present a framework that supports facilitators in providing practice-based facilitation, which begins with observations of how visitors engage with an exhibit and expands and deepens visitors’ use of disciplinary practices. The framework includes two complementary tools developed through iterative design-based research situated in an interactive science center. The first tool links exhibit-specific observations of visitor engagement to STEM practices. The second tool provides three pathways related directly to the visitor’s experience that inform facilitation moves. The framework and associated tools could be modified for institutions focused on other disciplines such as art or history by incorporating the practices that align with the ways professionals in those disciplines construct meaning, engage in analysis, and solve problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Practices
• facilitation
• framework
• engagement
• interactive science centers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

About the authors

Danielle B. Harlow is an associate professor of education at UC-Santa Barbara. Her work focuses on science and engineering education for elementary school children and teachers and the role that informal science environments can play in children’s and teachers’ learning. Harlow also collaborates on research and education programs with MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, a museum designed to encourage visitors to learn about science and engineering through exploring and innovating. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, Boulder and M.S. at Stanford University.

Ron K. Skinner is the Director of Education at MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation. Skinner created the vision for the department and oversees MOXI’s educational programs, staff and volunteer educators, as well as MOXI’s unique certificate program in informal STEM learning. Skinner’s experience includes management at a natural history museum, university level physics teaching, and K-12 science teaching. He also owned and operated an organic farm, where he developed an apprentice program in sustainable agriculture and ran informal education programs on the farm and in schools.

ORCID

Danielle B. Harlow http://orcid.org/00-0001-6721-7659

Ron K. Skinner http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8102-4682

Notes

1 Weil, “From Being about Something to Being for Somebody.”

2 Hein, “The Constructivist Museum.”

3 Driver et al., “Constructing Scientific Knowledge in the Classroom”; Coffey et al., “The Missing Disciplinary Substance of Formative Sssessment”; Atkin and Coffey, Everyday Assessment in the Science Classroom; Hammer et al., “Responsive Teaching and the Beginnings of Energy in a Third Grade Classroom”; Hammer and von Zee, Seeing the Science in Children’s Thinking.

4 Tran and King, “The Professionalization of Museum Educators.”

5 Allen and Crowley “From Acquisition to Inquiry”; Sanford and Sokel, “Professional Development.”

6 Penuel et al., “Organizing Research and Development at the Intersection of Learning, Implementation, and Design”; Fishman et al., “Design Based Implementation Research.”

7 See Harlow, Skinner, and O’Brien, “Roll It Wall.”

8 Falk and Dierking, The Museum Experience Revisited; Stocklmayer and Gilbert, “New Experiences and Old Knowledge.”

9 Kelly, Cunningham, and Rickets, “Engaging in Identity Work through Engineering Practices in Elementary Classrooms.”

10 Bariault, “Assessing Exhibits for Learning in Science Centers.”

11 NGSS Lead States, The Next Generation Science Standards.

12 Cunningham and Kelly, “Epistemic Practices for Engineering Education.”

13 Tran, Werner-Avidon, and Newton. “Successful Professional Learning for Informal Educators.”

14 Bevan et al., “Making Deeper Learners.”

15 See crosscutting concepts in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

16 Skinner and Harlow, “Reinventing Visitor Engagement through a Framework for Observing and Facilitating Learning.”