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Alan,
Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed reply.  I particularly liked the conclusion of the sixth paragraph, which strongly speaks to the nature of creativity and the interplay of knowledge and affect.

C
On May 7, 2012, at 8:17 AM, Alan Friedman wrote:

> Informative and provocative post as always, Charlie.  I'll bite.
> 
> Yes, strands of learning other than cognitive can be measured, about as easily as the cognitive ones, and yes, there is evidence of strong positive correlations among the strands, including interest and cognitive measures.
> 
> When I started in this field in 1973, I was introduced early to the distinction between the cognitive and affective domains.  The very first exhibition evaluation I did (dragged into evaluation kicking and screaming by Laurie Eason at the Lawrence Hall of Science), we measured not only what astronomy knowledge visitors took away from an astronomy exhibition, but what the exhibition did to their interest in astronomy.  Dennis Schatz invented an assessment we called the "Schatz Raffle Inventory" to measure how seeing the exhibition affected teenagers' interest in astronomy.  Students were selected at random to see one of two exhibits (one on astronomy), and then offered raffle tickets to thank them for their participation.  All they had to do was to check which of three prizes they wanted to win, one of which was an astronomy poster.  Students who had been directed to the astronomy exhibition selected the astronomy poster twice as often as those who were directed to a different exhibition (“Summative Evaluation of a Participatory Science Exhibit,” by Alan Friedman, Cary I. Sneider and Laurie P. Eason, Science Education, No. 36 (1979) 25‑36).
> 
> This was all new to me in the 1970's, but there have long been a host of validated instruments to measure affective domain characteristics for kids and adults.  Take a look at the ATIS web site from Harvard, which offers critical reviews of over a dozen good instruments (http://www.pearweb.org/atis).  Note the Children's Science Curiosity Scale. There are large scale studies of knowledge, interest and attitudes towards engineering and technology described in "Tech Tally" from the National Academy of Engineering (2006, http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11691&page=R1). The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has initiated a major effort to create a measure of "activated science learners."  4H, an enormous organization reaching millions of children, does careful studies of its impact nationally including "YEAK" surveys (Youth Engagement, Attitudes and Knowledge).  Background questions on the National Assessment of Educational Progress ("the Nation's Report Card") include measures of interest, while the main scores reflect cognitive measures, so the two can be and have been studied for correlations, with lots of evidence of positive correlations between interest and achievement (www.nagb.org ).  And there is that wonderful paper by Robert Tai and colleagues showing that adolescents’ expectations that they would have a career in science were an excellent predictor (better than math scores!) of graduating college with a science or engineering degree (Science, May 26, 2006).  “Young adolescents who expected to have a career in science were more likely to graduate from college with a science degree, emphasizing the importance of early encouragement.”  The study found that 8th grade students with expectations for a science related career were 3.4 times more likely to earn college physical science and engineering degrees than students without similar expectations.  
> 
> I keep an occasional running tally of studies like this in an essay "Evidence for the Impact of Informal Science Learning" on my web site (http://www.friedmanconsults.com/essays ) and see it is about time for another update.  Bottom line, I think there is a much broader and deeper line of work, including lots of peer reviewed, rigorous studies, establishing the importance of and connections between  cognitive and affective domain outcomes.  Hopefully the professional evaluators and researchers on this listserv will step in here and give us further guides to this assertion (Visitor Studies Association members and others, please speak up!). 
> 
> A different and deeper question you raise is "Ultimately, isn't it the cognitive ones that count?"  For some people, particularly those who live and breathe formal education, or who regard creating more STEM workers as the primary and perhaps the only goal of STEM education, I suppose the answer is "yes."  But for those of us who believe in the value of a liberal arts education (with science as one of those liberal arts), then the answer is that both cognitive and affective domain outcomes count.  Interest without knowledge is dangerous.  Knowledge without interest is short-lived.  But having both knowledge and interest can lead to a lifetime of pleasure, enlightenment, and effective participation in a civilization's culture.  That's what I've come to believe strongly, over a lifetime.
> 
> I certainly agree with you that informal learning has been going on eons before the term was coined, and before organizations for ISE were created.  That's fine.  Organizations are one way for informal learning to happen.  And yes, we can have many modes of learning, some with very different approaches, many different ones working effectively.  Sadly, this also includes approaches which try to narrow thinking and insist on dogma and rejection of rationality when it comes in conflict with dogma.
> 
> Mark's insight into museums as infrastructure is a valuable way of looking at us, and not the only valuable way.  I too rarely visit libraries in the flesh these days, but look how brilliantly they have adapted!  The libraries in Queens, NY, have the highest circulation in the free world, and their branches are packed with kids every afternoon, and thousands of recent immigrants and other adults learn in these libraries and take courses every day.  We have a lot to learn from the stories of the continuing value of libraries, even in the age of the smart phone and Internet.
> 
> Cheers,
> Alan
> Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D.
> Consultant for Museum Development and Science Communication
> 29 West 10th Street
> New York, New York 10011 USA
> T  +1 917 882-6671
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>  
> a member of The Museum Group
> www.museumgroup.com
>> 
> 

Charles Carlson
Senior Scientist
exploratorium

http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/whyintercept/

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