ERIC Number: EJ1461544
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Feb
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0926-7220
EISSN: EISSN-1573-1901
Available Date: 2023-09-25
Natural History Museum Guides' Conceptions on the Integration of the Nature of Science
Science & Education, v34 n1 p511-529 2025
The development of understanding of nature of scienceĀ (NOS) can be seen as one of the educational goals of natural history museums. In these museums, guides take on the role of educators responsible for shaping the content and style of guided tours. They play a crucial role in making scientific knowledge and narratives accessible to visitors, leveraging their background knowledge and expertise and combining them with the exhibits found in the natural history museums. The primary goal of this phenomenographic study was to examine the conceptions held by museum guides in natural history museums regarding the integration of aspects of NOS in their guided tours. Understanding guides' conceptions is important in order to understand how reference is made to aspects of NOS during the tours. The data collection was performed via a semi-structured interviews in which guides (n = 15) were asked to discuss their approach to the integration of NOS. A phenomenographic analysis was conducted to pinpoint references to cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional aspects of science from the perspective of the Family Resemblance Approach. The analysis revealed three key dimensions: references to scientific research, references to research conducted in the museum, and references to research related to the exhibits. Within each of these dimensions are categories that illustrate the differences in their conceptions. These findings indicate that integration of NOS in guided tours is implemented primarily via implicit approach. The main theoretical contribution of this study is the conceptualization of implicit and explicit approaches to NOS integration in natural history museums.
Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link-springer-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Haifa, Israel