Judy Diamond - Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and Other Informal Educational Settings

Practical Evaluation Guide

American Association for State and Local History

Book Series

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William Bomar, University of Alabama Museums

Jessica Dorman, The Historic New Orleans Collection

W. Eric Emerson, South Carolina Department of Archives and History

Tim Grove, National Air and Space Museum

Ann E. McCleary, University of West Georgia

Laurie Ossman, Preservation Society of Newport County

Laura Roberts, Roberts Consulting

Sandra Smith, Heinz History Center

Kimberly Springle, Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives

William S. Walker, Cooperstown Graduate Program, SUNY Oneonta

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Practical Evaluation Guide

Tools for Museums and Other Informal Educational Settings

Third Edition

Judy Diamond, Michael Horn, and David H. Uttal

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

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Copyright 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

Names: Diamond, Judy, author. | Horn, Michael (Michael Stephen) author. | Uttal, David H. (David Henry), 1960 author.

Title: Practical evaluation guide : tools for museums and other informal educational settings / Judy Diamond, Michael Horn, and David H. Uttal.

Description: Third edition. | Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. | Series: American Association for State and Local History | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015042901 (print) | LCCN 2015046192 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442263536 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442263543 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442263550 (Electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Museum exhibitsEvaluation. | MuseumsEducational aspects. | Non-formal education.

Classification: LCC AM151 .D5 2016 (print) | LCC AM151 (ebook) | DDC 069/.5dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042901

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

A lot has happened in the world of informal science learning since the Practical Evaluation Guide was first published in 1999. The intervening years have seen the rise of mobile technologies, the emergence of social media, the widespread availability of streaming digital video, and the founding of Wikipedia. In many ways, the availability of accessible scientific information has never been greater. Yet, despite these changes and the economic turmoil of the past decade, informal learning institutions of all stripes have continued to thrive. The public still seeks out the enlightenment, exhilaration, and entertainment of museums, science centers, zoos, aquaria, planetariums, and nature centers. The need for high-quality evaluation of innovative programs and exhibits remains as strong as ever.

As its name implies, this volume is meant to serve as a handbook for students, evaluators, researchers, and other professionals interested in informal learning institutions and the audiences they serve. In this third edition, we strive to remain accessible and practical, while broadening our scope to embrace new technologies and developments in the practice of evaluation in informal science institutions. We thought the field of informal learning might embrace a more prescriptive approach to evaluation, following publication of the NSF-sponsored framework for evaluating the impacts of informal science education projects (Friedman 2008). In fact, the field has, if anything, become more eclectic. As researchers from a broad range of disciplines have turned their attention to informal science institutions, more creative techniques have been used to assess impacts with an even wider range of acceptable standards of excellence.

This book is divided into four parts. discusses how to present and share results of evaluation studies with various stakeholders.

Each of us comes from different disciplines to participate in informal evaluation. Diamonds first evaluation studies were conducted of family groups at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, using the methods of ethology she utilized in studies of coyote social behavior (Diamond 1986). For her, the museum was an ideal setting to observe how human families engage in natural teaching and learning behaviors in a free-choice environment, giving insight into fundamental ways that human social groups interact with and learn from their environment. Just as in any field research, she had to maintain an open mind about what was observed, to use a light touch so participants would not be adversely influenced by the observers presence, to employ rigorous methods for data collection, and to retain constraint and humility when interpreting results. Since that time, she has continued to research the behavior of animals in the wild, including a 20-year field study of parrots in New Zealand (Diamond & Bond 1999).

Michael Horn and David Uttal bring new expertise from their disciplines of psychology and computer science. These two individuals are shaping the future of multidisciplinary learning sciences, approaches that include studying how learning takes place in institutions and settings guided by free-choice and voluntary participation. Both are members of the Learning Sciences faculty in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University with joint appointments in Psychology (Uttal) and Computer Science (Horn).