"Hi, Would You Like to Hear About Our Research Study?" Challenges in Recruiting and Maintaining Robust Samples in Informal Learning Research

• In Event: When Nothing Is Something: Null Results in Informal Learning Research

Abstract

Objectives: This poster presents two studies of informal science learning with young children across multiple learning ecologies. Study 1 examined relations between parent-child conversations about science at an aquarium and at home, and Study 2 created and evaluated connections between science curriculum in formal classrooms and informal science learning at the aquarium. Study research questions are displayed in Table 1.

Perspectives: Our studies examine science learning across young children's learning ecologies to connect spaces where they engage in formal and informal learning (Siemens, 2007). We explore the impact of parent-child interactions across informal learning environments (ILE) from the position that parents and children co-construct science practices during informal learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978). We also investigate how families’ cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge are tapped to build science knowledge and bridge learning contexts (e.g., Moll et al., 1992).

Methods & Data: In Study 1, parent-child dyads were recruited at the aquarium. We conducted naturalistic observations and audio-recorded the consenting dyads as they explored an exhibit. We invited parents to a follow-up two weeks later, during which parents were to record and return a conversation with their child about the aquarium. In Study 2, children were recruited in preschool classrooms. We piloted a science curriculum lesson on sea jelly anatomy and assessed children’s conceptual understanding of target concepts using a coloring task. Two weeks later, we invited the study parents to record themselves at home while viewing the aquarium’s sea jelly webcam with their child. All parent-child conversations were transcribed, and we coded for parental elaborative talk in Study 1 and child STEM talk (Haden et al., 2014; Kelly et al., 2020) in both studies. For this poster, we also present the number of participants who volunteered and were retained at each stage of the studies.

Results: In study 1, multiple linear regression models, predicting separately child STEM talk at the aquarium and at home from parental elaborative talk, supported hypothesized relationships between parent elaborations and child aquarium STEM talk, R2 = .24, df(4,45), p < .05, but the model examining home STEM talk, with a reduced sample, revealed null findings, R2 = .75, df(5,11), p = .063. In study 2, chi-square analysis of the link between child age and coloring task performance revealed that four- and five-year-olds were more likely than three-year-olds to differentiate sea jelly anatomy in the coloring task, X2 (2, N = 29) = 21.36, p < .001. However, because only one family returned the home conversation, we could not explore relationships between formal and informal spaces.

Significance: Connecting informal learning in the community and at home with formal classroom learning presents unique opportunities for learning contexts to interact and "create seamless learning ecologies" (Meyers et al., 2013), thus promoting essential emerging STEM literacies. However, ILE scholars must address the challenges in retaining samples across learning environments and innovate analytic approaches that ensure data from even small samples do not go unexplored.

Authors

• Kimberly R. Kelly, California State University - Long Beach

• Cathrine Maiorca, California State University - Long Beach

• Betina Hsieh, California State University - Long Beach