Poster #40 - Promoting Families' Use of Comparative Language within a Children's Museum Engineering Exhibit

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

One key aspect of children's learning is their ability to transfer information across different problems and contexts (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999; Chen & Klahr, 1999; Day & Goldstone, 2012). Transfer is particularly important within informal learning settings, like museums (Marcus, Haden, & Uttal, 2017). To support learning and transfer within museums, parents and educators can use comparative language, relating features within the exhibit to one another, and to events outside the exhibit (Gentner et al., 2016; Valle & Callanan, 2006). The current study explores the extent to which parents and children use comparative language within a children's museum exhibit designed for tinkering and STEM learning, and how museum practice can support this language.
Thirty 6 - 8-year-old children and their parents were video recorded while working with real tools and materials (e.g., wood, bottle caps) to solve an engineering design challenge to make a moving vehicle. Before entering the exhibit, 15 families were guided by a museum staff person to explore the exhibit's materials and make comparisons, whereas the other 15 families entered the exhibit without this orientation. The orientations (when provided) and the interactions in the exhibit of all families were coded for comparative language. Comparative language included comparisons to the exhibit's activities (e.g. "That wheel rolls faster than that wheel.", "Flying vehicles are easier to make than rolling vehicles."), to other visitor's creations, and to prior knowledge and experiences the families had had in the past, as well as experiences they might have in the future. Given prior work suggesting that comparative language can support learning and transfer (Silvey et al., 2017), we hypothesized that families who received the orientation would use more comparative language than their counterparts who did not receive the orientation.
All families made at least one comparison during their exhibit visit, averaging 10.97 comparisons. As shown in Figure 1, out of all the different types of comparisons families could make, they most often (M = 3.53) compared the exhibit's materials and tools (e.g. "we need taller wheels.", "The saw works better than the scissors."). Additionally, parents who make more comparisons have children who make more comparisons, r(28) = .65, p <.0001, and as parental education increases, so do the number of comparisons families make while tinkering (r(28) = .43, p = .02). When controlling for parental education, families who received the orientation make significantly more comparisons (M = 13.8, S.D. =11.78) than families who did (M = 8.13, S.D. = 4.40) not receive the orientation, F(2,26) = 8.6477, p = .0068. As shown in Figure 2, these group differences exist for nearly all types of comparative language. These results suggest that museums may be able to bolster families' use of comparative language within exhibits, which may facilitate transfer.
Our discussion of the results will emphasize how comparative language may be supported during museum visits. Also, our analyses of how families use comparative language within an engineering exhibit may provide insights into the types of parent-led cognitive supports that enrich children's representations of their museum experiences.

Authors

• Naomi Polinsky, Northwestern University
  Presenting Author

• Diana I Acosta, Loyola University Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine Haden, Loyola University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David H Uttal, Northwestern University
  Non-Presenting Author