Action Research As Professional Development for Zoo Educators

ABSTRACT

Zoo education department staff members engaged in a professional development program on action research that resulted in increased self-efficacy in their ability to formally or informally assess their own instructional and other job-related practices. Resolution of contradictions between professional development goals and participant perceptions, between discordant research ideologies of the participants and of action research paradigms, and between the professional development objectives and the existing tools held by participants were important in facilitating participants' ability to engage in action research. The role of mentors was of particular significance in the resolution of contradictions. This program of reflective practice simultaneously provided development for zoo professionals and yielded visitor studies data that the staff members could directly apply to their practices, thus bridging the gap between research and practice.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by the Center for Inquiry in Science Teaching and Learning (CISTL) under the National Science Foundation, Award No. ESI-0227619. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. CISTL is supported by the National Science Foundation's Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT) program. CISTL is a collaboration among higher education institutions, cultural science institutions, and school districts.

Notes

^a 1 (novice), 2 (know a little), 3 (know a lot), or 4 (expert).

∗ Significant at p < .05.

∗∗significant at p < .01.

1. In order to maintain confidentiality, the names of the research participants and the location of the zoo are not revealed in this article.

2. The term affective transformation was coined by this zoo and represents the goal of inspiring positive conservation attitudes and behaviors in zoo visitors.

3. Ten of these items were adapted from the Perceived Immediacy Behavior (Gorham, 1988) Survey as presented by Montgomery (n.d.b).

4. Format for these survey items was patterned after the structure found in Montgomery's (n.d.a) arrangement of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (Taylor, Fraser, & White, 1994).

5. Four additional projects were still in progress after the official end of data collection for the overall professional development research study presented in this article and had not been completed as of 15 months after the department-wide personal assessment PD sessions had been conducted.