Franse RK, Sachisthal MSM and Raijmakers MEJ (2023) Presenting wicked problems in a science museum: A methodology to study interest from a dynamic perspective. Front. Psychol. 14:1113019. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113019
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Article
Presenting wicked problems in a science museum
Science centers and science museums have an important social role in engaging people with science and technology relevant for complex societal problems - so called wicked problems. We used the case of personalized medicine to illustrate a methodology that can be used to inform the development of exhibitions on such wicked problems. The methodology that is presented is grounded in dynamic theories of interest development that define interest as a multidimensional construct involving knowledge, behavior (personal and general) value, self-efficacy, and emotion. The methodology uses a mixed method design that is able to (1) study the predictive effects of background variables on interest, (2) study the interest dimensions predicting individual interest, and (3) identify the most influential interest dimensions. We set up focus groups (N = 16, age = 20–74, low SES) to design a survey study (N = 341, age 19–89 years olds with a broad range of SES) about people’s interest in personalized medicine. Results of a network analysis of the survey data show that despite the variety in emotions and knowledge about subtopics, these dimensions do not play a central role in the multidimensional interest construct. In contrast, general value and behavior (related to understanding scientific research) seem to be interesting candidates for eliciting situational interest that could have an effect on the more long term individual interest. These results are specific for the case of personalized medicine. We discuss ways in which results of studies with the presented methodology might be useful for exhibition development.
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Article
Parental Pre-knowledge Enhances Guidance During Inquiry-Based Family Learning in a Museum Context
Effective interaction and inquiry are an essential source for children’s learning about science in an informal context. This study investigated the effect of parental pre-knowledge on parent–child interactions (manipulations, parent talk, and child talk) duringan inquiry activity in NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. The sample included 105 parent–child dyads (mean children’s age = 10.0 years). Half of the couples were randomly assigned to the experimental group in which, without the child’s knowledge, the parent was shown the task’s solution prior to the inquiry activity. Results show that parental pre-knowledge affected the way parents interacted and inquired with their child. Compared to parents without pre-knowledge, parents with pre-knowledge inquired longer, posed more open-ended wh-questions and closed questions, and less often interpreted results. Children of parents with pre-knowledge more often described evidence and interpreted results, more often manipulated alone, and solved the task more accurately. These results indicate that parental pre-knowledge brings about parents’ scaffolding behavior. In addition, it was studied how individual differences of parents and children relate to parent–child interaction. Results show that children’s self-reported inquiry attitude was related to their conversation during inquiry, such that they asked fewer closed questions and more open-ended questions. Children’s gender affected the cooperation between parent and child, parents more often manipulated together with boys than with girls, and girls more often manipulated alone. Fathers with pre-knowledge, but not mothers, let their child manipulate more by oneself than fathers without pre-knowledge. This study shows that more knowledge about an exhibit improves a parent’s scaffolding behavior in a science museum. Results are discussed in the context of museum practice.
Franse RK, Van Schijndel TJP and Raijmakers MEJ (2020) Parental Pre-knowledge Enhances Guidance During Inquiry-Based Family Learning in a Museum Context: An Individual Differences Perspective. Front. Psychol. 11:1047. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01047
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Article
Families' experiments and conversations at an open‐ended exhibit in a science museum
Research on the impact of guided investigation, including verbal guidance strategies, has expanded in the recent decade, and the current work contributes to this line of research in a museum context. The current in-depth study examines the impact of verbal guidance strategies on family learning at an open-ended museum exhibit, considering participants' individual characteristics. The experiments and conversations of 104 families were observed at an object motion exhibit. Results show that families, with and without guidance, investigated in a meaningful way by performing control-of-variables strategy experiments, investigating a range of variables, and formulating hypotheses and causal explanations. However, the results also show that the process of learning scientific concepts could be improved. Minimal interventions of museum educators positively affected the families' learning process by reducing the number of scientifically incorrect remarks. Interestingly, in addition to discussing the phenomenon, especially the families with highly educated parents discussed the topic of reliability of their experiments, which is an under-investigated aspect of learning through investigation. Only children's cognitive ability and not parental education was modestly, but consistently related to the families' performance.
Franse, R. K., van Schijndel, T. J. P., Plankman, T. I., & Raijmakers, M. E. J. (2021). Families' experiments and conversations at an open-ended exhibit in a science museum: Individual characteristics and the influence of minimal guidance strategies. Science Education, 105(4), 707-742. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21620