Supporting parents to support children’s problem solving in a free play museum exhibit.

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Problem solving is an essential part of STEM learning, allowing us to explore possible solutions, recognise causes, and try out hypotheses. Recently some studies have suggested that children struggle with what might seem quite simple problem-solving tasks (e.g. Beck et al., 2011), although one significant limitation of these studies is that children are tested on their own and in a relatively formal classroom environment. We collaborated with a children’s science museum to explore children’s problem solving in a more natural and playful informal education environment (see Crowley & Callanan, 1998). We used an intervention based on studies that explored problem solving in goal-directed exhibits in a museum (e.g. Benjamin, Haden, & Wilkerson, 2010), but we explored parent-child interactions at a free play exhibit to understand how STEM learning can be supported in this type of environment.
Fifty-two parent-child dyads were recruited to visit the science museum and participate in our study. They were allocated using a Latin Square to three conditions: In the conversational instruction condition, parents were encouraged to ask questions, make associations (e.g. “this is like the wheels on our car”) and provide encouragement. In the child-led condition, parents were asked to let the child lead the interaction. The no instruction condition acted as a control in which parents were given no specific instructions on how to interact with the exhibit.
Dyads interacted with a museum exhibit, the Imagination Playground (Rockwell, 2012), which comprises of large foam blocks. The blocks are typically used props in free play and to build with. A ten-minute interaction was video and voice recorded. Here we report our analysis of parents’ behaviour. Videos were coded for the number of questions asked, the number of associations drawn, and the amount of encouragement. We used GLM with a Poisson distribution to analyse the data looking at instruction condition, gender, and age. For the number of questions asked, there was a significant effect of instruction condition, b=0.785, p=<.001. Parents in the conversational instruction condition asked more questions than in either the child-led or no instruction conditions. For encouragement, there was a significant effect of instruction condition, b=.282, p=.039. Parents in the conversational instruction condition gave more encouragement than in the child-led and no instructions condition. For the number of associations made there was a significant effect of instruction condition, b=1.104, p≤.001. Parents in the conversational instruction condition made more associations than in the child-led or no instructions conditions.
Overall, we found that our conversational instructions were effective in encouraging parents to support children’s engagement with the free play exhibit through question-asking, encouragement, and making associations. This adds to the literature that already showed that parents can support children’s learning in more structured goal-directed exhibits and tasks (e.g. Haden, Jant, Hoffman, Marcus, Geddes, & Gaskins, 2014). Future work will examine how this support influences children’s memory, learning, and enjoyment

Authors

• Sonia Rishi, University of Birmingham
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Beck, University of Birmingham
  Non-Presenting Author