Messaging Matters: Order of Experience with Messaging at a STEM-Based Museum Exhibit Influences Children’s Engagement with Challenging Tasks

Sobel, David; Stricker, Laura W.

doi:10.1080/10645578.2021.2015948

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…We found that children were more engaged with the exhibits when they interacted collaboratively with their caregivers, as compared to when they or their caregivers were leading the interactions. This aligns with results of earlier studies on caregiver–child interactions in museum settings, in which collaborative interactions led to the most engagement (e.g., Medina and Sobel, 2020 ; Leonard et al, 2021 ; Sobel et al, 2021 ; Sobel and Stricker, 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning

Weisberg

Dunlap²,

Sobel³

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Research in both laboratory and museum settings suggests that children’s exploration and caregiver–child interaction relate to children’s learning and engagement. Most of this work, however, takes a third-person perspective on children’s exploration of a single activity or exhibit, and does not consider children’s perspectives on their own exploration. In contrast, the current study recruited 6-to 10-year-olds (N = 52) to wear GoPro cameras, which recorded their first-person perspectives as they explored a dinosaur exhibition in a natural history museum. During a 10-min period, children were allowed to interact with 34 different exhibits, their caregivers and families, and museum staff however they wished. Following their exploration, children were asked to reflect on their exploration while watching the video they created and to report on whether they had learned anything. Children were rated as more engaged when they explored collaboratively with their caregivers. Children were more likely to report that they learned something when they were more engaged, and when they spent more time at exhibits that presented information didactically rather than being interactive. These results suggest that static exhibits have an important role to play in fostering learning experiences in museums, potentially because such exhibits allow for more caregiver–child interaction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning

Weisberg

Dunlap²,

Sobel³

2023

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, an interesting caveat to this discussion is that recent findings have suggested ways of reducing parental directedness in museum settings. Sobel and Stricker (2022) showed that presenting families with prompts that encouraged more open-ended collaboration and exploration (e.g., “There is no wrong way to play.”) when they initially engaged with exhibit materials reduced parental directedness. It might be interesting to consider modifying the way in which museums present at-home activities, including their current handwashing-related activities, to increase collaborative, playful interactions and encourage causal language among parents through prompts (see also Willard et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent–child interaction during a home STEM activity and children’s handwashing behaviors

Sobel

Stricker

2022

Front. Psychol.

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We examined correlations between a home-based STEM activity illustrating the importance of soap use during handwashing and children’s (4-to 7-year-olds, N = 81, 42 girls, 39 boys) use of soap when washing their hands. Parents and children either participated in or watched the activity. Children reflected on the activity immediately afterward and a week later. Parent–child interaction during participation related to the frequency of unprompted soap use during handwashing, controlling for performance on other, related cognitive measures. Children whose parents were more goal-directed, and set goals for the interaction, were less likely to use soap spontaneously when handwashing in the subsequent week. The amount of causal knowledge children generated when they reflected on the experience immediately afterward also influenced whether children used soap when washing their hands. Reducing the autonomy children believe they have during a STEM-based activity potentially leads them to not engage in a behavior related to the activity on their own. Overall, these data suggest that parent–child interaction during STEM activities can influence the ways children encode and engage with those activities in their everyday lives. Given that the ways children wash their hands might mitigate the spread of disease, interventions that focus on providing children with the belief that STEM activities are for them might be broadly beneficial to society.

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“…Presenting messages—even subtle ones—that promote the process of engaging in inquiry fosters engagement (e.g., Rhodes et al, 2019). Similarly, presenting messages about the open-endedness of play reduces parental goal setting during parent-child interaction and increases children’s engagement (Sobel & Stricker, 2022a). Taken together, emphasizing the process of setting goals and the challenges involved in achieving them might communicate the autonomy children need to foster their engagement in STEM.…”

Section: Concluding Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement From Parent-Child Interaction in Informal Learning Environments

Sobel

2023

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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Children’s engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is fundamental to developing scientific literacy. Informal learning environments, such as children’s museums, are a robust setting for fostering STEM engagement, particularly through parent-child interaction. Although the role of STEM learning has been frequently documented in informal learning environments, how children are engaged by STEM topics and STEM’s relation to children’s everyday lives has not been equally well studied. In this article, I suggest that there are ways that parent-child interaction during informal learning opportunities can relate to children’s engagement in STEM activities. A fundamental mechanism underlying this relation is how parents support children’s autonomy as they play together. Parent-child interaction relates to children’s STEM engagement not only in situ but also in how they generalize that behavior to their everyday activities, which opens up promising new lines of research.

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Messaging Matters: Order of Experience with Messaging at a STEM-Based Museum Exhibit Influences Children’s Engagement with Challenging Tasks

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning

Dinos and GoPros: Children’s exploratory behaviors in a museum and their reflections on their learning

Parent–child interaction during a home STEM activity and children’s handwashing behaviors

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Engagement From Parent-Child Interaction in Informal Learning Environments

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