TY - JOUR
T1 - Parents' and experts' awareness of learning opportunities in children's museum exhibits
AU - Song, Lulu
AU - Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick
AU - Stuehling, Amara
AU - Resnick, Ilyse
AU - Mahajan, Neha
AU - Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy
AU - Thompson, Nora
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - Informal learning outside of school is crucial for a child's development. Children's museums, in particular, are environments conducive to this sort of learning, especially when parents guide children's exploration. However, research suggests a gap between parents' and experts' perceptions of the value of informal learning. In Study 1, we asked groups of parents and experts (i.e., individuals in the community connected with the field of education or those with training in child growth and development) to rate the presence of learning opportunities available in two museum exhibits, finding that parents consistently provided lower ratings. In Study 2, we explored whether signage aimed at orienting parents toward the learning potential in these exhibits would have an impact on their ratings. Results suggested that signage made parents' ratings look more like those of experts. Taken together, these studies show that a simple intervention can help parents perceive the learning opportunities in children's museum exhibits as experts do.
AB - Informal learning outside of school is crucial for a child's development. Children's museums, in particular, are environments conducive to this sort of learning, especially when parents guide children's exploration. However, research suggests a gap between parents' and experts' perceptions of the value of informal learning. In Study 1, we asked groups of parents and experts (i.e., individuals in the community connected with the field of education or those with training in child growth and development) to rate the presence of learning opportunities available in two museum exhibits, finding that parents consistently provided lower ratings. In Study 2, we explored whether signage aimed at orienting parents toward the learning potential in these exhibits would have an impact on their ratings. Results suggested that signage made parents' ratings look more like those of experts. Taken together, these studies show that a simple intervention can help parents perceive the learning opportunities in children's museum exhibits as experts do.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.appdev.2017.01.006
DO - 10.1016/j.appdev.2017.01.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 28970647
AN - SCOPUS:85012950191
SN - 0193-3973
VL - 49
SP - 39
EP - 45
JO - Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
JF - Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
ER -