CERN

Background: One of the big opportunities offered by out-of-school learning places at research institutions is their authenticity, as they can provide insight into authentic research and work of scientists. Purpose: To what extent the students perceive this “authenticity of place” may however be individually different. In order to measure whether students indeed perceive a given out-of-school learning offer as an authentic learning place from their individual perspective an instrument is needed. Sample/setting: The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) is a genuine research environment for natural and engineering sciences and can therefore be considered as an authentic out-of-school learning place. Students from 3 different cantons in Switzerland participated in a field trip to the PSI, including a guided tour to one of its research facilities (on renewable energies) and a hands-on workshop in its science outreach lab (iLab) related to that topic. Data about test characteristics were collected in a pilot and in a main study (n = 80, March 2018 and n = 94, May to September 2018). All the classes were taught by the same teacher to learn about the basics of the research being done in that particular field of research at PSI. The guided tour was done by the same scientist from PSI for all classes. Design and methods: The questionnaire consists of a 6 point Likert scale with 9 items. An item analysis was carried out, as well as a factor analysis testing for the dimensionality of the questionnaire. Results: In terms of content the items for authenticity of place can be divided into one group with a cognitive focus and another group with an emotional focus. The item analysis of the total instrument yields good to very good characteristics (Cronbach’s Alpha as estimate of internal consistency ?C = .91, average item-test-correlation rit = .71), similarly for the sub-tests with cognitive and emotional focus (?C = .80, rit = .63 and ?C = .89, rit = .77) A performed confirmatory factor analysis proved compatible with a two-factor and a one-factor model (CFI = 0.98 and 0.97, respectively). The fact that the correlation between the two factors “cognitive” and “emotional” is very high (.94) argues in favour of the one factor model (McDonald’s omega as estimate of internal consistency adapted to factor analysis: ? = 0.92). Conclusions/Implications for practice and future research: The instrument presented here can be used as a one factor scale with good to very good test characteristics, if an overall measure of perceived authenticity of place is needed. The two subscales with cognitive and emotional focus could also be used separately, as their test characteristics are also satisfactory to good. Due to its short format and administration time (around 2 minutes) the instrument can be well integrated in the evaluation of out-of-school learning places. The scale was developed specifically for a research institute and has to be adapted for other out-of-school learning places such as museums, science centres or field trips. For future research it will be interesting to include other dimensions of perceived authenticity (such as authenticity of a person, e.g. the scientist at a research institute) and to study their combined effects on educational outcomes. Work along these lines within the framework of a larger research project on out-of-school science learning is in progress.

Hintergrund: Die Integration von Informatik in den NT-Unterricht spielt heute noch keine grosse Rolle in der Aus-bildung von Lehrpersonen. Es mangelt an Vorbildern und Selbstvertrauen bei den angehenden Lehrpersonen. Zweck: Die Absicht des Projekts DIWENT war es, dass Studierende mit der Unterstützung von den Kursleitenden, selbständig eine Unterrichtssequenz erarbeiten können, und diese auf der Zielstufe anwenden. Es wird erwartet, dass die zukünftigen Lehrpersonen durch das exemplarische Umsetzen auch langfristig digitale Werkzeuge im NT-Unter-richt erproben und einsetzen werden. Stichprobe/Setting: Der Beitrag fusst auf Erfahrungen der beiden Dozierenden zum Einsatz von Sensoren und Mikrocomputern in einer Kurswoche und auf Beobachtungen in der Begleitung von vier Teilnehmenden in der Um-setzungsphase. Design und Methode: Im Sinne der designbasierten Forschung werden das Seminar und die Umsetzungsprojekte der beteiligten Studierenden beschrieben und es wird über ausgewählte Beobachtungen im Prozess berichtet. Ergebnisse: Die individuellen Projekte der Teilnehmenden lassen sich grundsätzlich als gelungen betrachten. Dabei sind sie eher komplexer ausgefallen als für die Unterrichtspraxis sinnvoll. Es hat sich zudem gezeigt, dass die individu-ellen Voraussetzungen der Teilnehmenden die Begleitung durch die Kursleitung anspruchsvoll macht, sowohl im di-daktischen wie auch im fachlichen Bereich. Folgerungen: Durch vermehrte Vorgaben lässt sich verhindern, dass die Teilnehmenden sich selbst und die techni-schen Möglichkeiten überfordern. Unser Ansatz bietet wertvolle Anregungen für eine Aufnahme von angewandten Informatikkenntnissen in das reguläre NT-Ausbildungscurriculum an pädagogischen Hochschulen. Schlüsselbegriffe: Computer programmieren, Naturwissenschaftsdidaktik, Messverfahren, Sensoren, Ausbildung Lehrer:innen

Out-of-school learning places (OSLePs) have come to be recognized as an integral part of promoting science and technology education. Studies at OSLePs demonstrate that learner feelings of unfamiliarity present barriers to achieving educational outcomes. However, these investigations of novelty at OSLePs have drawn from several different, largely unconnected models to guide their work and have differently defined the novelty construct. The aim of this paper is to describe a more comprehensive framework for studying novelty at OSLePs. Through a literature review, we show how studies have focused primarily on how learners’ previous knowledge, experiences, and disposition, as well as features of the OSLeP, affect educational outcomes. Measures of these ‘novelty influence’ factors fall into five categories: cognitive, affective, setting familiarity, social, and capability. Another set of important, but less studied, variables have to do with perceived ‘novelty experience,’ or what learners find new or unusual during their OSLeP experience, and how it interacts with the novelty influence factors to shape educational outcomes. We relate the presented synthesis of research on novelty influence and experience factors to the Contextual Model of Learning, an influential theoretical framework for research about and development of informal learning programs. In a second part of the paper, we discuss how novelty at OSLePs relates to two general theories of educational science: self-determination theory and Yerkes-Dodson relationships. These models can provide a still broader understanding of novelty and its educational effects at OSLePs. Finally, we offer suggestions for designing investigations that will better inform OSLeP managers and researchers about how to leverage novelty for more positive learner experiences.