Productive Forms of Facilitation for Young Girls During Engineering Activities Within Informal Learning Settings

• In Event: 52.047 - Critical Intersections of Pedagogies and Research Methodologies to Value Youths' Whole Lives in STEM Engagement

Abstract

Exploring the ways in which children engage in early engineering activities can provide useful information for the ongoing efforts to develop early interest and understanding in engineering practices and ways of thinking. By the time girls reach middle school, they are already much less likely to be interested in STEM than boys are, especially in fields that are math-intensive such as physics and engineering. This lack of interest has been shown to be commonly connected to two things: a narrow, inaccurate view of the engineering profession, and the perceived misalignment between what engineers do and what girls tend to value (Eccles, 2005; Eccles et al., 1999).

Informal learning environments, where learners spend a great deal of time and have more freedom in choosing the topics they study and immerse themselves in, have been shown to be powerful and transformative contexts in which young people cultivate lifelong interest and understanding around STEM topics over time. Institutions for informal science learning, such as science museums, are visited by over 50 million people in the United States every year. These settings allow for parents and children to collaboratively engage in STEM learning, which may be particularly important in fields like engineering where parents have been shown to play a critical role in career choice (Mannon & Schreuders, 2007, Matusovich et al., 2010).

Building on the work of Crowley and others (Crowley & Jacobs, 2002; Palmquist & Crowley, 2007; Zimmerman et al., 2010) exploring learning through conversations in informal learning environments, the Gender Research on Adult-child Discussions within Informal ENgineering environmenTs (GRADIENT) project investigated the development of early engineering interest and understanding by closely examining parent-child conversation within two different museum-based contexts.

In this paper, we present the findings from a pre-school program where parents and children can play with engineering-focused toys and engage in different aspects of the engineering design process, where we recorded observations of 51 adult-child dyads. Video and transcripts were coded for instances of engineering activity, specific facilitation moves, and the impacts of those moves. Findings from GRADIENT suggest that the most productive interactions in this data set happened when adults authentically solicited input on design decisions from the child participant. Conversely, the least productive interactions for the children tended to happen when adults were overly directive during the design activity. This work begins to highlight productive ways of fostering early engineering learning that can be informative for both STEM educators and parents.

Authors

• Gina Navoa Svarovsky, University of Notre Dame

• Monica Elaine Cardella, Purdue University

• Brianna Dorie, Gonzaga University

• Zdanna King, Science Museum of Minnesota