Teaching Science in Science Museums and Science Centers

Teaching Science in Science Museums and Science Centers: Towards a New Pedagogy? Katerina Plakitsi Assistant Professor of Science Education, University of Ioannina, Greece Intensive Programmes (IP) LIGHT, IOANNINA 2012

τὸ ἀντίξουν συµφέρον καὶ ἐ κ τῶν διαφερόντων καλλίστην ἁρµονίαν (καὶ πάντα κατ’ ἔριν γίνεσθαι). Ηράκλειτος Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony. Heraclitus Fragment 98, as translated by Philip Wheelwright, in Wheelwright, P. (1966). The Presocratics. Indianapolis: ITT.

FORMAL AND INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION • formal science education includes typical learning environments, approaches or contexts • informal science education consists of free choice learning environments, approaches or contexts lifelong learning environments play an important role in human learning

Formal and informal education • is represented by the term “science in society” • presents a global educational scene • forms a dialectical relationship between science and|for society

• Science in Society also means learning science in science museums and science centers • schools do their science courses in science museums and science centers. • teachers, students and parents interact during their daily experiences as citizens • science in society became a priority in Europe

Roth and Mc Ginn (1997), proposed deinstitutionalizing school science education including • ethics, • culture, • informal debates, • strengthening the role of women in science, • supporting formal and informal science education in schools and in science centers and museums • focusing on science and society communication

Discussion with your neighbor • Share your experience about formal and informal science education. • Provide some examples. • Specify how your experience connects science to society. – Write down your description and return it to us.

A new necessity of • expanding science education to include cultural acquisition and participation in the community (Roth and Tobin, 2002; Roth, 2010). • teaching science in science museums and science centers is connected with the sociocultural aspects of science education.

Cultural Historical Theory of Activity • Activity theory has its origins – in classical German philosophy (from Kant to Hegel), – in the writings of Marx and Engels, and – in the Soviet Russian cultural historical psychology of Vygotsky, Leont'ev, and Luria. 9

• Today activity theory is becoming truly international and multidisciplinary. • This process entails the discovery of new and old related approaches, discussion partners, and allies, from American pragmatism and Wittgenstein to ethnomethodology and theories of self organizing systems (Engestrom, 1999). 10

• Activity theory is a framework or descriptive tool (Nardi, 1996) that provides "a unified account of Vygotsky's proposals on the nature and development of human behaviour" (Lantolf, 2006, p. 8). 11

Activity Theory Tools Outcomes Subject Rules Object Community Division of labour Figure 1: Components of the activity system (Engeström, 1987) 12

Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework in science education • can expand the borders of our pedagogical knowledge • can be more liberating and more motivating Culture becomes structure

• students cross the borders by horizontal or vertical movements among different interactive systems • learning in science museums and science centers can physically and logically be embedded in the CHAT context • museum exhibitions are strong cultural tools • central mediative role in learning and culture making.

Discussion with your neighbor • Are you familiar with any socio cultural perspectives? • Describe in a few words the tension or perspective. • Write down your description and return it to us.

Museum • is a non-profit, permanent institution – in the service of society and open to the public • acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity • supports education, study and enjoyment

• Is a public social investment with – powerful influence on society – precious artifacts have been moved, protected, or stolen during war. • annual museum attendance is close to a billion visits a year • “infinitely diverse”

museums of natural sciences and technology 1. The museum institution, which expresses the traditional form of museum (incorporates intense educational activities).

2. The virtual museum, which is a museum without walls where networking and new forms of communication dominate.

3. The children’s museum, which primarily serves children.

4. The local museum (or museum in situ), which is connected with the local natural and social environment.

1. 1. Museum Institution: Collections Figures 1. a. London Science Museum, U. K. : Apollo 10 mode. b. The Future of Biometrics in the new Antenna Gallery

1. 2. Museum-Institution: Experiments-Inventions

1. 3. Museum Institution: Cultural Centers

2. The Virtual Museum • digital culture is web communication • creation of many virtual museums of natural science and technology • systems of virtual reality and augmented reality are central in each modern museum three dimensions (technological, modern, philosophical)

Some useful links for virtual museums • International Council of Museums, http: //icom. museum/vlmp/ • The Virtual Library of Museums in USA, http: //museumca. org/usa/ • European Network of Science Centres and Museums, www. ecsite. net, (accessed 27/7/2010)

3. Children’s Museums • More than 30 million children and families visited children’s museums annually. • The largest children’s museum is The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (Indiana), which has a total of 433, 000 square feet. • The oldest children’s museum is the Brooklyn Children’s Museum (New York), which opened in 1899; the children’s museum field is 111 years young!

Figures 4. a. Brooklyn Children’s Museum, founded in 1899. b. Indianapolis Children’s Museum, U. S

4. The Local Museums (Museums In -Situ). • important for local communities • promote the teaching and learning of science as a means of participating in the community • E. g. Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta highlights the culture and technology of the olive and olive production

Figure 6. Mediterranean olive oil museums

LIMITED INTERPRETATIVE PARADIGMS theories for learning science in science museuns and science centers have been limited to Falk and Dierking’s (1992) and Hein’s explanatory model (1998)

Modification of the model provided by G. Hein (1997) about different types of museums related to different educational theories.

THE SOCIAL ROLE OF MUSEUMS • Formal and informal education need to have the potential to empower citizens to make informed decisions in a democratic society (Hein, 2004). • Museums are strong cultural tools – impact on society is gradually advancing – museums change their educational practices

THE SOCIAL ROLE OF MUSEUMS • gives emphasis to community participation and less to marvellous and miraculous exhibitions • takes into consideration the subject, the object, the tools, the rules, the community, and the division of labor • requires interdisciplinary working groups with both scientists and practitioners and a new mentality about the societal role of museums

CHAT AND MUSEUM EDUCATION • accepts and precedes a process ontology • does not accept separate entities • accepts the inseparability of the individual and the group

Positivistic versus CHAT epistemology Positivistic epistemology CHAT epistemology Formal Nonformal We do research on the child’s We do research with many different phenomenology of the world, the object, methods, without neglecting time, etc. different research forms and traditions Intractable For example, in the case of a child’s Scientific concepts and also conception of time, we investigate only the child hood are considered as ongoing conventional aspect of time, which reflects processes; the teaching/researching the Newtonian concept of one unique and refers to some milestones of their evolution. uniform time in the universe. Contextualized Decontextualized We do research on children’s conceptions of We do research on chilrden’s time independently of children’s conceptions of time based on sociocultural, economic, family, and school children’s sociocultural, economic, family, and school environments.

Positivistic versus CHAT epistemology Universalistic Multicultural The basic principle here is that teaching The central idea of this section is leads to one form of knowledge: a true and that there are many types of stable knowledge. Science is being taught as science. Different ways of the discovery of true knowledge, which interpreting data lead to multiple exists in the real world views that create unity from the differences. Reductionistic Local only one research method is the scientific By keeping the local, we can one, and any researcher can repeat the acquire a rich list of criteria, as well same research results any place in the world as ways of knowing and learning. by following the same method. Unidimensional Multidimensional Reality is uni dimensional, so research on a Reality and environment are child’s conception of time therefore multi dimensional and complex. We assumes the Western concept of time. need new methodologies for teaching and researching in these interactive and progressive systems of relationships.

Figure 8. Traveling with birds- Modules.

EXAMPLE: TRAVELING WITH BIRDS students to be able to: • Know the more important birds of our homeland. • Become familiar with some of the more important museums and with some open museums. • Connect education in the natural sciences with arts and culture. • Become informed about environmental problems, such as the risks to fauna and biodiversity, in combination with the causes behind those threats. • Realize the societal role of the natural sciences.

“Travelling with the Birds” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Goulandris Natural History Museum Diomidis Botanical Garden, Athens Aegean Wildlife Hospital – ALKIONI Hellenic Wildlife Hospital – EKPAZ Benaki Museum - Archaeological Department Benaki Museum - Department of Popular Art Byzantine and Christian Museum Numismatic Museum of Athens

IN CONCLUSION • CHAT seems to – fit into the social role of museums – overcome the obstacles of positivism in science education and research – provide characteristics of multiplicity, dialectics, and unity of differences – create educational program in order to implement sociocultural practices – implement changes and ongoing processes

Thank you! Communication Katerina Plakitsi Department of Early Childhood Education, Ioannina, Greece e-mail: kplakits@cc. uoi. gr http: //erasmus-ip. uoi. gr 45