The use of zoo exhibits by family groups to learn science

Abstract

In the last twenty years, research about science learning in informal contexts such as museums, science centers, zoos and aquariums has proliferated. Many studies have created detailed descriptions of learning as it occurs in informal contexts. Science education researchers have defined learning in several different ways. The selection of a conceptual framework through which to view science learning determines the questions that a researcher can explore. My study applied Roth and Lee's (2002) understanding of science learning as a collective praxis to the context of informal science learning at a community zoo. This conceptual framework is rooted in the view of learning as situated cognition as described by Lave and Wenger (1991). My research explored the interaction of the sociocultural and physical contexts for informal learning as defined by Falk (2000) and investigates how family groups collaborate to learn science at zoo exhibits and how they incorporate the physical features of the exhibit into their collaboration. My interpretations of each family's discourse yielded a variety of genres or accepted patterns used to learn science. All families engaged in highly parent-directed discourse during their visit. For one family parent-controlled, directed explanation was present in all science learning events; the other families' science learning events were a mixture of directed explanation and more collaborative genres of discourse. All the families in this study used exhibit text in two different ways: as a way of framing or guiding their interaction with the exhibit or as a resource in the context of the Family's own frame. For all of the families in this study, each exhibit was a separate learning event—none of the families applied or linked ideas or explanations created at one exhibit to ideas or explanations created at another exhibit. Implications of this study include more longitudinal research on the role of zoo visits on family learning and more explicit connections among exhibits that allow visitors to reflect on their learning and encourage a broader view of the nature of science.

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