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Prior Experiences Shaping Family Science Conversations at a Nature Center
Author(s) -
M LUCY R.,
ZIMMERMAN HEATHER TOOMEY
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/sce.21134
Subject(s) - conversation , meaning (existential) , science education , psychology , conversation analysis , informal education , social psychology , pedagogy , sociology , higher education , communication , psychotherapist , political science , law
Using families as the analytical focus, this study informs the field of informal science education with a focus on the role of prior experiences in family science conversations during nature walks at an outdoor‐based nature center. Through video‐based research, the team analyzed 16 families during walks at a nature center. Each family's prior science learning experience provided conversational strategies for learning together as a social group and when making meaning out of observations in the outdoors. This analysis provides three main findings: (1) families frequently tapped into a vast repertoire of previous experiences during conversations about nature and very often, explicitly sourced a specific prior experience in their dialogue with one another; (2) when families sourced a prior experience, they almost exclusively named an experience from a nonschool setting, with everyday experiences, designed spaces (i.e., informal institutions), and programs for science learning being the most common experiences cited; and (3) families leveraged references to prior experiences during family science conversations to serve four primary facilitation processes in conversation: reminding, prompting, explaining, and orienting. Implications from this study emphasize the importance of referencing previous life experiences during family science conversations as a meaning‐making tool and for additional research on families learning science in outdoor education spaces.

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