Learning about Astronomy: a case study exploring how grade 7 and 8 students experience sites of informal learning in South Africa

Abstract

Abstract \nAll students are able to learn something about astronomy when they participate in a school \nvisit to a site of informal learning such as a science centre. I examined how children from \nfour schools experienced presentations and participated in activities about astronomy during a \ntwo to four hour visit to either the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory or the \nJohannesburg Planetarium in South Africa. The case study involved observing thirty-four 12- \nto 14-year-old students at the science centre and interviewing them about astronomy concepts \nincluding those based on personal meaning maps they drew prior to and after their visit. The \ndata were analysed using a human constructivist framework to determine both what and how \nstudents learnt during their visit. \nDespite a lack of teacher involvement I show how students collectively and \nindividually learnt about concepts in astronomy, which I categorised into a set of seven Big \nIdeas: gravity, stars and the Sun, size and scale, the Solar System, day and night, Moon \nphases and parabolic dishes. Collectively, there was an improvement in their knowledge of \nBig Ideas dealt with at the study sites, including gravity, stars, the Sun, size and scale, and \nparabolic dishes. The students showed little change in their knowledge of day and night or the \nphases of the Moon. Individually, all students learnt principally by incremental addition of \nknowledge, while some students also demonstrated greater knowledge restructuring. Students \nwith the least prior knowledge added additional basic facts to their repertoire, while those \nwith greater prior knowledge were able to reorganise their knowledge and achieve greater \nunderstanding. All students also showed that the affective domain (for example enjoyment \nand wonder) contributed to their learning by encouraging interest in astronomy. Some \nstudents demonstrated examples of conative learning in which their experiences prompted \nthem to further action after their visit. While the visit changed the misconceptions of some \nstudents, it made little difference to others, and promoted misconceptions in a few. \nMethodological findings included the value of using personal meaning maps, the importance \nof using models during the interview process and observations of how students used language \nin their description of astronomical processes. \nThe study suggests that students learn best from a range of activities clustered around \na central theme, and that enjoyable activities appear to enhance learning. I recommend that \nthe astronomy presented at the centres focus on a limited number of concepts in astronomy, \nand that presentations and activities be structured around those Big Ideas. Science centresshould provide teachers with guidelines for their visit. I also propose that activities aim to \nrecall students’ prior knowledge and provide situational interest to encourage motivation in \nthe topic of astronomy and the subject of science. Finally I suggest that science centres \nshould combine cognitive learning with affective fun, as recommended by students \nparticipating in the study. \nKeywords \nAstronomy, Astronomy Education, Constructivism, Human Constructivism, Informal \nLearning, Museum, Planetarium, Science Centre.

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