John H. Falk

Development of Visual Preference for Natural Environments

Human visual preferences for slides of five natural landscapes or biomes-tropical rain forest, temperate deciduous forest, coniferous forest, savanna, and desert-were examined. Subjects were third graders, sixth graders, ninth graders, college students, adults, senior citizens, and a group of professional foresters. A series of 20 slides, 4 examples of each biome, was shown twice to each group of subjects. On one pass through the slides, subjects judged how much they would like to live in an area similar to the one represented; on the other pass, subjects rated the slides for how much they would like to visit an area similar to the one shown. Judgments were made on a 6-point Likert scale. Elementary schoolchildren showed a significant preference for savanna over all other biomes. From midadolescence and through adulthood, more familiar natural environments were equally preferred to savanna. Results were interpreted as providing limited support for the hypothesis that humans have an innate preference for savanna-like settings that arises from their long evolutionary history on the savannas of East Africa.

Free‐choice environmental learning: framing the discussion

Education is a lifelong endeavor; the public learns in many places and contexts, for a diversity of reasons, throughout their lives. During the past couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness that free‐choice learning experiences – learning experiences where the learner exercises a large degree of choice and control over the what, when and why of learning – play a major role in lifelong learning. Worldwide, most environmental learning is not acquired in school, but outside of school through free‐choice learning experiences. Included in this article are brief overviews of environmental learning, the nature of learning, the educational infrastructure, and free‐choice learning as a term. This article provides a framework for thinking about free‐choice environmental learning and sets the stage for thinking about the other articles in this special issue.Education is a lifelong endeavor; the public learns in many places and contexts, for a diversity of reasons, throughout their lives. During the past couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness that free‐choice learning experiences – learning experiences where the learner exercises a large degree of choice and control over the what, when and why of learning – play a major role in lifelong learning. Worldwide, most environmental learning is not acquired in school, but outside of school through free‐choice learning experiences. Included in this article are brief overviews of environmental learning, the nature of learning, the educational infrastructure, and free‐choice learning as a term. This article provides a framework for thinking about free‐choice environmental learning and sets the stage for thinking about the other articles in this special issue.

Investigating public science interest and understanding: evidence for the importance of free-choice learning

Historically, most of the focus of science education has been on pre-college and college level schooling. Although some of the publics interest and knowledge about science is unquestionably shaped by compulsory schooling, given that the average adult spends only a fraction of their life participating in some kind of formal schooling, we argue that the contribution of school-based science learning to the long-term public understanding of science is limited, particularly for the majority of Americans who do not go on to post-secondary schooling. This article shows that the majority of the public constructs much of its understanding of science over the course of their lives, gathering information from many places and contexts, and for a diversity of reasons. A random telephone survey of Los Angeles, California residents found that nearly half (43 percent) of the publics self-reported science understanding derives from leisure time, free-choice learning; science understanding was primarily acquired for reasons related to personal interest, need and/or curiosity. The conclusion drawn from this preliminary investigation is that future efforts to understand and support the publics understanding of science will require approaches that take into account individual differences and the unique personal and context-specific nature of knowledge; findings also support the value of asset-based approaches to education which build from strengths rather than dwelling upon deficits.

The Field Trip Milieu: Learning and Behavior as a Function of Contextual Events

AbstractA Study to assess the impact of school field trips on attitudes, behavior, and learning was conducted with 1% third and fifth grade children. Half the children went on an all-day field trip to a nature center to learn about the biology of trees; the other half were taught the same lesson outside their classroom during their regular science period. As measured by pre- and posttests, field experiences resulted in significant immediate learning and 30-day retention for all groups. Observational measures revealed that student behavior varied as a function of age and environmental context. A model is proposed that relates learning and behavior to both developmental level and environmental novelty.

Evolutionary Influence on Human Landscape Preference

Individuals residing in the rainforest belt of Nigeria were shown photographs of five biomes: rain forest, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, savanna, and desert. Subjects overwhelmingly selected savanna scenes as representing the most desirable place to live. These results, coupled with extensive American data, support the hypothesis that humans possess an innate preference for savanna-like settings, which then is modified through experience and enculturation. Findings are discussed in relation to anthropological, biological, and psychological research.

Testing a Museum Exhibition Design Assumption: Effect of Explicit Labeling of Exhibit Clusters on Visitor Concept Development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a museum exhibition design assumption that visitors develop conceptual understanding of a science topic after utilizing a cluster of conceptually related exhibits which lack explicit concept labeling; also investigated was whether visitor concept development could be enhanced through the addition of explicit labeling about the intended conceptual messages. Two very different clusters of exhibits were selected for investigation: how transportation in Los Angeles affects air pollution (“Transportation”) and the conception and early development of vertebrates (“Eggciting Beginnings”). The two exhibition clusters were assessed under two treatments—with and without explicit labeling informing visitors of the intended conceptual messages. Visitors demonstrated statistically significant concept development, as measured by changes in pre- to posttest scores, in the Transportation cluster under both treatment conditions (with and without explicit labeling), but in the Eggciting Beginnings cluster only under the explicit labeling condition. When data from both sets of exhibit clusters were pooled, visitors evidenced significant concept development in all conditions. The findings from this study support the contention that visitors can, and do acquire both factual and conceptual information as a consequence of relatively brief interactions (on the order of 2–5 minutes) with clusters of related science exhibits; and this learning can be facilitated by explicitly and repeatedly displaying the conceptual messages to be communicated.

Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model

ABSTRACT This article represents a companion to an article critiquing Falks identity-related visitor motivations model. Provided here are a summary of the theory and assumptions that underlie the identity-related visitor motivations model and the empirical approaches that were used to develop the model. Particular attention is directed to clarifying the ways in which the identity-related visitor motivations model has and can be used as a segmentation tool, and the growing body of data from a wide range of institutions that support the basic validity and reliability of using the model for this purpose. The paradigmatic foundation of the model, pragmatism, is described. Pragmatism is an approach that emphasizes that knowledge is best gained through, and directed toward action; an approach that gives preference to practicality over theoretical discourses. Finally, thoughts on both the strengths and limitations of the identity-related visitor motivations model as a mechanism for better understanding museum visitors are presented.

Learning science from museums.

This article provides an overview of current understandings of the science learning that occurs as a consequence of visiting a free-choice learning setting like a science museum. The best available evidence indicates that if you want to understand learning at the level of individuals within the real world, learning does functionally differ depending upon the conditions, i.e., the context, under which it occurs. Hence, learning in museums is different than learning in any other setting. The contextual model of learning provides a way to organize the myriad specifics and details that give richness and authenticity to the museum learning process while still allowing a holistic picture of visitor learning. The results of a recent research investigation are used to show how this model elucidates the complex nature of science learning from museums. This study demonstrates that learning form museums can be meaningfully analyzed and described. The article concludes by stating that only by appreciating and accounting for the full complexities of the museum experience will a useful understanding of how and what visitors learn from science museums emerge.

Dialogue and synthesis: developing consensus in visitor research methodology.

ABSTRACT This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensens article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falks reply, “Contextualizing Falks Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research.

Mapping the informal science education landscape: An exploratory study

This study investigated the informal science education (ISE) field to determine whether it currently functions as an effective community of practice. Research questions included: How do professionals describe and self-identify their practice, including what missions, goals and motivating factors influence their professional work? What challenges do they face and how are these resolved? Is participation in ISE activities perceived as core or peripheral to their work? Open-ended interviews were conducted with high-level representatives of 17 different ISE sub-communities; results were analyzed qualitatively. Findings showed this broad assortment of ISE sub-communities as not currently functioning as a cohesive community of practice. Although examples of shared practice and ways of talking were found, evidence of widespread, active relationship-building over time and coalescence around issues of common concern were absent. A current “map” of the ISE community is proposed and thoughts about how this map could alter in the future are suggested.