TEACHING CONTENT AREA LITERACY IN INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS.
| Author | Kenny, Heather A. |
Introduction
Educators and policy-makers alike agree that a major goal of public school education is to promote durable learning among students. Yet, often the means to that end is called into dispute. Historically, field trips to informal learning environments [ILEs] such as science centers, zoos, museums, theaters and parks, were considered important, if not essential learning experiences that connect abstract concepts with the real world. More recently, however, it has become increasingly common for schools and districts in the United States to sacrifice field trips in favor of devoting resources to standardized test preparation (Weingarten quoted in Koebler 2011). As this paper will demonstrate, visits to ILEs have great potential to positively affect student achievement, particularly the achievement of less privileged students who often lack exposure to such novel learning environments. When combined with enhanced classroom instruction, visits to ILEs may even have the potential to narrow or close the achievement gap between privileged and less privileged students.
What Are ILEs and Why Are They Important?
The term, ILE, refers to spaces beyond the classroom that have the potential to educate. Examples of ILEs include zoos, museums, science centers, theaters and parks. While education may not be their raison d'etre, many ILEs do have overtly educative goals. For example, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., claims to "bring content experts and educators together to strengthen American education" and even offers a Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center "that places children at the center of every experience. The vast collections are the foundation for the culturally diverse curriculum" (Smithsonian Institute n.d.). Zoos, science centers, museums and theaters frequently offer year-round education programs. Even parks often include a reference to education in their mission and vision statements.
ILEs are important in that they support students in building the background knowledge that "provides a conceptual framework for comprehending" (Reutzel, Camperell and Smith 2002, 321). Background knowledge "influences what students attend to, what inferences they make, and what they remember after reading" (324). Science centers, zoos and parks have the potential to promote enhanced comprehension of science concepts among students, while museums often provide an informative backdrop for understanding concepts related to history or civics, and theaters may encourage a deeper understanding of art and literature. Not only does enhanced background or world knowledge increase students' ability to comprehend what they read, it provides abundant content for students' own writing since ILEs are rich with unique sensory experiences and they encourage first-hand explorations. One of the most compelling arguments for visiting ILEs, is that they are highly novel environments, and such novelty may be associated with increased learning outcomes (Fenker and Schutze 2008), perhaps because they are inherently interesting and motivating.
Guthrie and his colleagues identify two types of interest: situational and personal. Situational interest can be defined as a "positive but temporary affective responses to a stimulus or activity" (Guthrie et al. 2006, 242) while personal interest is a "more permanent, strong predisposition for participation in activities or for pursuit of certain goals" (242). ILEs, which are inherently interesting, create situational interest. Exposing students to "environments that stimulate situational interest is one way for schools to motivate students and help them make cognitive gains" (Hidi and Harackiewicz quoted in Guthrie et al., 233). Further, Guthrie and Knowles (2001) consider "real world" interactions, such as those that occur at ILEs, to be particularly motivating. Students...
To continue reading
Request your trialCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
