Evaluating Ocean Learning—The Principles and Practicalities of Evaluating Formal Education Audiences in an Informal Education Environment

Robinson, Andrew P.; Murray, Nicola

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90778-9_9

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the same years, a number of investigations into primary and secondary school students' knowledge and-in some cases-awareness and behavior towards the marine environment, were carried out in the US, in the UK, and in other non-European countries [8,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Studies among European students were few [22][23][24][25], and only three regarding the Mediterranean countries [26][27][28]. Interventional studies are still very scarce [24,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Increase Ocean Literacy for Future Ocean Sustainability? The Influence of Non-Formal Marine Science Education

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Even though the ocean is a defining feature on Earth that regulates climate and provides oxygen, food, and jobs, students still have low to moderate marine and ocean literacy knowledge. Ocean literacy is an understanding of the ocean’s influence on people and people’s influence on the ocean. It is an emerging need necessary for ensuring the sustainability of the ocean and its resources. The UN has declared a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and one of the priority research and development areas is ocean literacy. Unfortunately, marine science and ocean literacy topics are poorly represented in school curricula across the world. This study presents the level of marine knowledge in a sample of primary school students before and after different themed non-formal educational interventions and the effect of non-formal educational activities on students’ knowledge. These activities led to significant increase in the knowledge level three weeks after they were performed, indicating the retention of gained information. Performed educational activities and knowledge transfer from graduate level to primary school level significantly increased the level of students’ knowledge, and consequently ocean literacy, and revealed some of the learning misconceptions. Results of this study show that there is a need for an integrated approach to the teaching of Ocean Literacy starting from the early grades by combining teacher’s professional development, strengthening ocean-related topics in school curricula, and promoting non-formal educational activities.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Increase Ocean Literacy for Future Ocean Sustainability? The Influence of Non-Formal Marine Science Education

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Whilst helping to identify if aims and objectives have been met, it can also assist with planning, provide evidence of impact, and critically reflect for future engagement activities. Therefore, evaluation is a process that should run from the start of a project and continue after it has finished (Robinson and Murray, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another challenge related to the evaluation of the impact in informal STEM education is the broad range of projects and the large variety of methods used to conduct the evaluation. The most common form of evaluation is the user survey (Robinson and Murray, 2019 ). When designed well and interpreted appropriately, self-report surveys can be used to gather useful data from large samples at relatively low-cost (Wolf et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Design and Validation of Assessing Tools for Measuring the Impact of Programs Promoting STEM Vocations

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents the design and validation process of a set of instruments to evaluate the impact of an informal learning initiative to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) vocations in students, their families (parents), and teachers. The proposed set of instruments, beyond assessing the satisfaction of the public involved, allow collecting data to evaluate the impact in terms of changes in the consideration of the role of women in STEM areas and STEM vocations. The procedure followed to develop the set of instruments consisted of two phases. In the first phase, a preliminary version (v1) of the questionnaires was designed based on the objectives of the Girls4STEM initiative, an inclusive project promoting STEM vocations between 6 and 18 years old boys and girls. Five specific questionnaires were designed, one for the families (post activity), two for the students (pre and post activity) and two for the teachers (pre and post avitivity). A refined version (v2) of each questionnaire was obtained with evidence of content validity after undergoing an expert judgment process. The second phase was the refinement of the (v2) instruments, to ascertain the evidence of reliability and validity so that a final version (v3) was derived. In the paper, a high-quality set of good practices focused on promoting diversity and gender equality in the STEM sector are presented from a Higher Education Institution perspective, the University of Valencia. The main contribution of this work is the achievement of a set of instruments, rigorously designed for the evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of a STEM promoting program, with sufficient validity evidence. Moreover, the proposed instruments can be a reference for the evaluation of other projects aimed at diversifying the STEM sector.

show abstract

“…Riedinger and Taylor (2018) discuss the body of research on field trips' influence on student interest and attitudes (Behrendt and Franklin, 2014) and provide suggestions for effective field trips, highlighting practical concerns such as the preparation of chaperones. Robinson and Murray (2018) speak to the importance of evaluating programs and discuss science communication theory, providing examples from the National Marine Aquarium in the United Kingdom.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Book Review: Exemplary Practices in Marine Science Education

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Evaluating Ocean Learning—The Principles and Practicalities of Evaluating Formal Education Audiences in an Informal Education Environment

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

How to Increase Ocean Literacy for Future Ocean Sustainability? The Influence of Non-Formal Marine Science Education

How to Increase Ocean Literacy for Future Ocean Sustainability? The Influence of Non-Formal Marine Science Education

On the Design and Validation of Assessing Tools for Measuring the Impact of Programs Promoting STEM Vocations

Book Review: Exemplary Practices in Marine Science Education

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About