A Non-Formal Student Laboratory as a Place for Innovation in Education for Sustainability for All Students

"I've Always Thought That I Was Not Good at Experiments…"-The Benefit of Non-formal Learning in Terms of Students' Perceived Competence

Outreach science labs have been established as non-formal out-of-school learning environments in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Previous research has suggested that visiting an outreach science lab can be beneficial in terms of student motivation. Nevertheless, the current research on these out-of-school learning environments lacks studies that investigate important variables for the development of self-determined student motivation, such as perceived competence. In our study, we investigated the moderating effect of the learning environment on the relationship between students' contextual competence perceptions and their situational competence experiences regarding experimentation. For this purpose, 119 students in the first year of the upper secondary school participated in an experimental course on enzymology at an outreach science lab (n = 60) and in their biology classroom at school (n = 59). Our results showed that the relationship between students' contextual competence perceptions and their situational competence experiences during experimentation is moderated by the learning environment. The analyses revealed that students with a higher contextual competence perception showed comparable situational experiences of competence in both learning environments. In contrast, the students who perceived themselves as less competent at a contextual level benefited from experimenting at the outreach science lab in terms of their situational competence experiences.

STEAM Project-Based Learning Activities at the Science Museum as an Effective Training for Future Chemistry Teachers

Non-formal learning environments, such as science museums, have a fundamental role in science education and high potentialities as ideal contexts for science teachers’ training. These aspects have been analyzed and reported in several recent works mainly focused on students’ perception of science and increased engagement towards scientific disciplines. In this work, a project-based learning methodology optimized and experimented in the frame of a pre-service chemistry teachers’ course at the University of Pisa (Italy), during the last eight years, involving in total 171 participants, is presented. This educational project has several distinctive features related to the STEAM philosophy, with a high level of multi-disciplinarity and creativity. Most of the laboratories and chemistry-centered activities were conceived, planned and carried out by the future chemistry teachers in non-formal contexts, such as science museums. A case study based on a series of non-formal laboratories designed by a group of students during their training in the academic year 2018–2019 and performed in a science museum is reported and examined in details. In this paper, all steps of the STEAM project-based learning methodology are described underlining the main learning outcomes and cognitive levels involved in each step and the relevant methodologies proposed during the training course and adopted in the project. The effectiveness of this pre-service teachers’ training methodology is finally discussed in terms of participants’ motivation and interest towards the course’s content, students’ final judgment of their training experiences and, in particular, of the STEAM project-based learning activities. From the students’ feedbacks and final assessment, the role of the non-formal context in teaching and learning chemistry and the efficacy of developing educational activities related to current and real-life chemistry-centered topics emerged as very positive aspects of the proposed approach.

Wirksamkeit der schulischen Vor- und Nachbereitung eines Schülerlaborbesuches

MINT-Schülerlabore sind non-formelle Lernorte, welche den Schulunterricht ergänzen sollen. Aufgrund ihrer anschaulichen, interaktiven und motivierenden Darbietungsmethoden können sich positive Effekte auf psychologische und kognitive Konstrukte zeigen, welche durch eine Verknüpfung mit dem schulischen Lernort nachhaltig gesichert werden sollen. Hierbei können berufsorientierende, interessebasierte und motivationale Aspekte sowie das Fähigkeitsselbstkonzept, die Selbstwirksamkeit und der Wissenserwerb positiv und langfristig beeinflusst werden. Im Rahmen dieser Studie wurde mit standortübergreifenden Daten von 752 gymnasialen und nicht-gymnasialen Lernenden anhand einer Prä-Post-Follow-up-Erhebung die Entwicklung der beschriebenen Konstrukte durch einen einfachen Schülerlaborbesuch sowie eine zusätzliche rein fachliche bzw. berufsorientierte schulische Vor- und Nachbereitung untersucht. Hierbei konnte durch die Intervention lediglich bei den kognitiven jedoch nicht bei den psychologischen Konstrukten eine positive Änderung erreicht werden. Zudem wurde im Rahmen eines Vergleichs der Konstrukt-Ausprägungen in den beiden Schulformen festgestellt, dass gymnasiale Lernende stärker selbstbestimmte motivationale Regulationen nutzen als nicht-gymnasiale Schülerinnen und Schüler. Diese Ergebnisse müssen aus diversen Blickwinkeln diskutiert werden.