ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Hi,

The CILS Informal Learning Collaborative (at the Exploratorium) has, 
over the last 5 years, offered a PD certificate program for educators 
based at informal science institutions.  About 100 educators have 
gone through the program to date.

There are volumes of work documenting effective PD principles and 
what makes them effective.  We designed the 5-workshop ILC program 
based on the work of Susan Loucks-Horsley (from a review of the 
literature).  These are broad principles of PD design (versus the 
particular content that you might select for science educators, math 
educators or the particular settings or materials educators are 
working with in museum, classroom, or outdoor settings).   They 
reflect a general consensus on what matters.

They are (in a nutshell):

(1) providing a clear image of effective learning and teaching,
(2) providing opportunities for participants to develop knowledge and 
skills to broaden their teaching approaches,
(3) using instructional approaches that mirror methods to be used 
with their own audiences,
(4) building or strengthening an adult learning community,
(5) preparing participants to serve in leadership roles;
(6) consciously providing links to other parts of the educational system;
(7) including continuous assessment to determine efficacy and impact 
of programs on participants

In terms of the content of the ILC, we have focused on inquiry 
(within a museum context), educational policy (and how it relates to 
museum work), research (on learning as well as on learning in 
informal settings), and learning/workshop design.  The adult learning 
community has been the framework for the work, and our evaluation 
shows that it has had significant impact on participants' leadership 
and program innovations.

We are about to start a new phase of this PD work focusing on 
elucidating key learning design principles for informal contexts, 
translating them to the work of participating museum educators do 
with afterschool audiences, and assessing the results for 
participating students.

***

On a separate front, our CILS colleagues Lynn Tran and Heather King 
have written 2 papers about PD needs for museum educators:


Tran, L. U. & King, H. (2007). The professionalization of museum 
educators: The case in science museums. Museum Management & 
Curatorship, 22(2) 129-147.
Tran, L. U. (2007). Teaching science in museums: The pedagogy and 
goals of museum educators. Science Education 91(2) 278-297.

Hope this is of help,

Bronwyn



>ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
>*****************************************************************************
>
>Anybody know if there are formal professional standards for museum 
>education as in things we should all know as professionals?  (I'm 
>sitting in a meeting and we are considering developing a certificate 
>program for museum educators.)
>Thanks,
>Beryl
>
>--
>
>Beryl Rosenthal, Ph.D.
>Director, Tsongas Industrial History Center
>Boott Cotton Mills
>115 John Street
>Lowell, MA 01854
>(978) 970-5081 (t)
>(978) 970-5085 (f)
>http://www.uml.edu/tsongas
>
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>For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers 
>and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
>
>Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at 
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

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