Joshua P Gutwill
Biographic Data
| ID | 3490034 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joshua P Gutwill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joshua P |
| FAMILY NAME | Gutwill |
| SIGNATURE | GUTWILL J P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Exploratorium |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0548-8135 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Cultivating Confidence: The Potential of Science Museum Visits in Boosting Science Self‐Efficacy and Expanding Perceptions of Science in Emerging Adult Learners
This study examines the impact of a single science museum visit on the science self‐efficacy (SSE) of emerging adult learners. Building upon previous research, which showed a significant short‐term impact of a museum visit on SSE, our study aims to replicate these findings and gain deeper insights into the underlying mechanisms contributing to increased SSE. In the present study, we implemented a randomized control trial design and hired a recrui…
Outside Museum Walls: The Impact of Community Facilitators in an Outdoor Social Science Exhibition
The museum field has begun exploring the effects of facilitation on visitors' learning, focusing on facilitation by museum staff inside museum buildings. However, some museum professionals contend that museums have a responsibility to serve their communities in the spaces where community members spend time, rather than expecting the public to come to them. Less is known about the effects of facilitation on visitors in urban outdoor spaces where i…
Creating Middle Ground: Transforming Outdoor Informal Learning Landscapes
In this article, we offer a model for shifting museums away from elitism and exclusion towards inclusion and community engagement. Rather than require all learners to come to the museum, we propose installing science exhibitions and pop‐ups in urban neighborhoods. The Transforming Informal Learning Landscapes (TILL) model integrates three key components—contextually‐relevant science, learning‐centered placemaking, and content‐humanizing facilitat…
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs in Visitor Studies: A Critical Reflection on Three Projects
Identifying causal relationships is an important aspect of research and evaluation in visitor studies, such as making claims about the learning outcomes of a program or exhibit. Experimental and quasi-experimental approaches are powerful tools for addressing these causal questions. However, these designs are arguably underused in visitor studies. In this article, we offer examples of the use of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in scien…
Science Self-Efficacy and Lifelong Learning: Emerging Adults in Science Museums
Recent research suggests that emerging adulthood—the stage between adolescence and maturity marked by a lengthy process of identity development—constitutes a window of opportunity for museums to influence adults' lifelong science learning trajectories. The current study sought to explore the impact of a single museum visit on emerging adults' science self-efficacy, beliefs about their own abilities to learn or do science. A repeated measures desi…
Group Inquiry at Science Museum Exhibits: Getting Visitors to Ask Juicy Questions
This brief volume describes an innovative activity that can be used by museum professionals to foster two key inquiry skills—asking a good question and articulating discoveries. A hybrid between a research report and a how-to manual, it describes the development, evaluation, and results of Juicy Question, a collaborative activity designed to foster group inquiry among families or school field trips. The authors demonstrate how the activity change…
Boosting Metacognition in Science Museums: Simple Exhibit Label Designs to Enhance Learning
Science museums can be excellent learning environments for engaging citizens in the complex societal issues of our time—such as climate change, fishery collapse, social prejudice, and wealth inequities—by fostering experimentation and metacognition about visitors' own social behaviors. The authors studied a low-cost metacognitive tool—Question Asking—in exhibit labels through a within-subjects, quasi-experimental research design with 59 randomly …
Learning Through STEM-Rich Tinkering: Findings From a Jointly Negotiated Research Project Taken Up in Practice: Learning Through Stem-Rich Tinkering
The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, 2013; Martinez & Stager, 2013). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, and supporting compelling inquiry-based learning experiences for young people. In this paper, we focus on making as an educativ…
Research to Practice: Observing Learning in Tinkering Activities
As tinkering and making spaces proliferate in museums, many researchers, practitioners, funders, and policy-makers seek to understand what constitutes learning-through-tinkering. To support discussion of tinkering-based learning, the Exploratorium sought to articulate and refine a valid, evidence-based definition of learning in its permanent on-floor Tinkering Studio. We studied and made videos of fifty learners and their companions in one of thr…
Research to Practice: Observing Learning in Tinkering Activities
As tinkering and making spaces proliferate in museums, many researchers, practitioners, funders, and policy-makers seek to understand what constitutes learning-through-tinkering. To support discussion of tinkering-based learning, the Exploratorium sought to articulate and refine a valid, evidence-based definition of learning in its permanent on-floor Tinkering Studio. We studied and made videos of fifty learners and their companions in one of thr…
Learning Through STEM-Rich Tinkering: Findings From a Jointly Negotiated Research Project Taken Up in Practice: Learning Through Stem-Rich Tinkering
The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, 2013; Martinez & Stager, 2013). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce, and supporting compelling inquiry-based learning experiences for young people. In this paper, we focus on making as an educativ…
Research to Practice: Observing Learning in Tinkering Activities
As tinkering and making spaces proliferate in museums, many researchers, practitioners, funders, and policy-makers seek to understand what constitutes learning-through-tinkering. To support discussion of tinkering-based learning, the Exploratorium sought to articulate and refine a valid, evidence-based definition of learning in its permanent on-floor Tinkering Studio. We studied and made videos of fifty learners and their companions in one of thr…
Group Inquiry at Science Museum Exhibits: Getting Visitors to Ask Juicy Questions
This brief volume describes an innovative activity that can be used by museum professionals to foster two key inquiry skills—asking a good question and articulating discoveries. A hybrid between a research report and a how-to manual, it describes the development, evaluation, and results of Juicy Question, a collaborative activity designed to foster group inquiry among families or school field trips. The authors demonstrate how the activity change…
Boosting Metacognition in Science Museums: Simple Exhibit Label Designs to Enhance Learning
Science museums can be excellent learning environments for engaging citizens in the complex societal issues of our time—such as climate change, fishery collapse, social prejudice, and wealth inequities—by fostering experimentation and metacognition about visitors' own social behaviors. The authors studied a low-cost metacognitive tool—Question Asking—in exhibit labels through a within-subjects, quasi-experimental research design with 59 randomly …
Science Self-Efficacy and Lifelong Learning: Emerging Adults in Science Museums
Recent research suggests that emerging adulthood—the stage between adolescence and maturity marked by a lengthy process of identity development—constitutes a window of opportunity for museums to influence adults' lifelong science learning trajectories. The current study sought to explore the impact of a single museum visit on emerging adults' science self-efficacy, beliefs about their own abilities to learn or do science. A repeated measures desi…
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs in Visitor Studies: A Critical Reflection on Three Projects
Identifying causal relationships is an important aspect of research and evaluation in visitor studies, such as making claims about the learning outcomes of a program or exhibit. Experimental and quasi-experimental approaches are powerful tools for addressing these causal questions. However, these designs are arguably underused in visitor studies. In this article, we offer examples of the use of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in scien…
Creating Middle Ground: Transforming Outdoor Informal Learning Landscapes
In this article, we offer a model for shifting museums away from elitism and exclusion towards inclusion and community engagement. Rather than require all learners to come to the museum, we propose installing science exhibitions and pop‐ups in urban neighborhoods. The Transforming Informal Learning Landscapes (TILL) model integrates three key components—contextually‐relevant science, learning‐centered placemaking, and content‐humanizing facilitat…
Outside Museum Walls: The Impact of Community Facilitators in an Outdoor Social Science Exhibition
The museum field has begun exploring the effects of facilitation on visitors' learning, focusing on facilitation by museum staff inside museum buildings. However, some museum professionals contend that museums have a responsibility to serve their communities in the spaces where community members spend time, rather than expecting the public to come to them. Less is known about the effects of facilitation on visitors in urban outdoor spaces where i…
Cultivating Confidence: The Potential of Science Museum Visits in Boosting Science Self‐Efficacy and Expanding Perceptions of Science in Emerging Adult Learners
This study examines the impact of a single science museum visit on the science self‐efficacy (SSE) of emerging adult learners. Building upon previous research, which showed a significant short‐term impact of a museum visit on SSE, our study aims to replicate these findings and gain deeper insights into the underlying mechanisms contributing to increased SSE. In the present study, we implemented a randomized control trial design and hired a recrui…
Museums and Cultural Heritage (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Art (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Mathematics education (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Art Education and Development (3 works) · Engineering (3 works) · Informal learning (3 works) · Pedagogy (3 works)