Making Learning Happen: The Effect of a Parents’ Guide and Kids’ Worksheet on Family Conversations and Behaviors in a Museum

• In Event: Family Engagement and Learning in Informal Settings

Abstract

How to facilitate audience to generate more learning conversations during the visit is an important question. This study designed a self-guide worksheet for kids and a parents’ guide as learning affordance in a science museum. The purpose of the study was to better understand whether and how the guide strategies influence the parent-child conversations during the visit. To address these questions, 113 parent-child dyads with children 6-12 years old recruited in a study in which 30 of the families used worksheet, 29 used parents’ guide, 24 used both and 30 in controlled group. Findings revealed that experiment groups show more engagement with exhibits and generate more conversations but in different ways.

Authors

• Xianqing Bao, Shanghai Normal University

• Xinning Pei, Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, East China Normal Univercity

• Youqun Ren, East China Normal University

• Jian Zhao, East China Normal University

• Mei Wang, East China Normal University

• Tainian Zheng, East China Normal University