Time and Behavior as Predictors of Learning

As more and more people look to institutions of informal education os places where science education occurs (Kimche, 1978; Tressell, 1980), increased attention has focused upon assessing learning in these out-of-school settings. In particular, instituions such as museums, nature centers, and zoos have devoted considerable efforts towards developing evaluation techniques. A multitude of procedures and approaches have been tired. These include questionnaires (Eason & Linn, 1976; Borun, 1977), empirical testing designs (Screven, 1974; Snider, Eason, & Friedman, 1979; Wright, 1980), and various interview techniques (Merrill, Wolfe & Tymitz, 1978, 1979; Miles & Alt, 1979; Diamond, 1980). Other procedures have included tracking (Lakota, 1975; Cone & Kendall, 1978; Rosenfeld, 1980; Borun & Miller, 1980), behavioral rating scales (Gottfried, 1981) and participant observers (Ramsay, 1974). Investigators have focused on both cognitive and affective dimensions of learning, as well as combinations of the two. Most of the methodologies mentioned above tend to be intrusive, requiring the subjects to fill out forms, take tests, or submit to interview procedures. In the few cases wehre evaluators have purposefully collected data unobtrusively, they have focused on affective dimensions of learning (Boggs, 1977; Wiegman & Wiegman, 1973). The development of meaningful unobtrusive measures of cognitive learning, particularly for use in the typical free-choice environment of informed education, has long been a goal of evaluators (Webb et al, 1966); yet it has frequently proved an illusive goal. The study described here is an attempt to unobtrusively assess cognitive learning.