Informal learning settings such as museums have been identified as opportunities to enhance students' knowledge and motivation in science and to optimize the connection between science and everyday life. The present study assessed the role of a self-paced science education program (situated in a medical science museum) in enhancing students' program-related content knowledge, self-efficacy, valuing, and aspirations. The study also investigated whether gains in content knowledge recall and motivation (as relevant to biology, anatomy, health) are associated with reported improvements in beliefs about health practices relevant to everyday life. The program aligned with a well-established tripartite engagement framework conforming to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement principles as well as principles underpinning guided discovery learning. Among a sample of N ¼ 167 (upper) elementary and secondary school students (aged 10-16 years, M ¼ 12.62 years), we found significant gains in content knowledge recall (achievement) and science motivation (self-efficacy, valuing, aspirations) following participation in the science program. Additionally, gains in content knowledge recall and motivation were associated with reported improvements in beliefs about everyday health practices. #

This exploratory practice research is a collaborative effort by five university ESL instructors to investigate how students in their program's advanced writing course view, respond to, and make meaning of the feedback they receive. Through semistructured interviews with focus groups, this research aims to provide students with a forum to express their perceptions, opinions, and insights. The teacher-researchers found that participants' relationship with feedback consisted of a set of interactions with the comments and text on the writing assignment itself, with classmates during peer review, and with the instructor during personal communication. Through examining these interactions, the teacher-researchers found that student views of feedback were often driven by an emotional response that was heavily influenced by grades and the teacher's written comments. Students had mixed, and often negative, reactions to receiving feedback from peers, but they spoke positively of their one-on-one interactions with their instructors. In response to their findings, the teacher-researchers reflect on their own practice and pose questions to the field at large. They conclude by urging other teachers and administrators to create more space for students to voice their views and insights.

To build on prior correlational research into personal best (PB) goals and motivational outcomes, an experimental study was conducted to assess the role of PB goal setting in gains (or declines) in students’ motivation in science (viz. biology, anatomy, health). The study (comprising N = 71 elementary/primary and secondary school students) applied a pre/post-treatment/control group experimental design to test whether setting a PB learning goal in a self-paced science education program (conducted in a museum context) leads to growth in science valuing and science aspirations. The treatment group (PB goal setting), but not the control group, demonstrated significant growth in science aspirations (but not valuing) between pre- and post-testing. This study provides support for the proposition that PB learning goals are associated with motivational growth in students’ lives. Findings also hold implications for museum-based education programs for students.