REVEALing Findings from the Field: Experiences Developing and Implementing a Staff Facilitation Model at Two Science Centers

June 1st, 2016 | RESEARCH

The REVEAL project is an NSF funded project to learn about how facilitation impacts family’s experiences of math exhibits. The goal of the project was to iteratively develop and refine a theoretical model of how staff facilitation deepens and extends family mathematical discourse at interactive exhibits. This model underwent rigorous testing and ultimately provided the evidence and research-based tools to support PD efforts for informal STEM educators. As part of this testing the learnings from developing at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, in Portland, Oregon) were applied in an educator training to ScienceWorks (in Ashland, Oregon). This article explores the experience of transferring of the REVEAL framework from OMSI to ScienceWorks and delves into factors that seemed to make a difference. For this article we look at these differences were manifest and consider the ramifications of funding requirements that encourage replicability across multiple sites. Some factors we identified as being significant in this were more physical like an institution’s size and geographic location while others were more philosophical such as adapting to individual facilitator styles, responding to unique institutional educational priorities. We also delve into some unanticipated outcomes such as the importance of creating personalized connections with partner organizations and how those could lead to future collaborations and strong community bonds. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of our findings and some recommendations for the field.

Document

138-ILR-May-June-2016.pdf

Team Members

Ivel Gontan, Author, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Scott Pattison, Author, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry & Institute for Learning Innovation
Summer Brandon, Author, ScienceWorks Hands on Museum
Andee Rubin, Author, TERC
Marcie Benne, Author, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

Citation

Publication: Informal Learning Review
Volume: May/June 2016
Number: 138
Page(s): 15-17

Funders

Funding Source: NSF
Funding Program: AISL
Award Number: DLR-1321666
Funding Amount: $790,066.00

Related URLs

Research: Researching the Value of Educator Actions for Learning (REVEAL)

Tags

Audience: Evaluators | Families | Learning Researchers | Museum | ISE Professionals
Discipline: Education and learning science | Mathematics
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits