The impact of an informal science learning environment on the environmentally responsible behavior of adults: a case study

Since environmental education’s emergence in America, the field has been primarily focused on increasing environmental awareness, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behavior. Yet the nation’s overall level of environmental literacy, especially with regard to the performance of environmentally responsible behaviors, continues to be low (Coyle, 2005). Unlike school-based education programs, which only reach a segment of the population, informal sites have the potential to influence learners of many ages and diverse backgrounds (NRC, 2009). Informal science learning environments (ISLEs) have been shown to provide personally meaningful learning experiences and have the potential to impact environmentally responsible decisions and actions (Falk, 2005). Yet models of behavior change which have been traditionally used in environmental education have not been entirely successful in informal environments. This exploratory case study attempted to discover which aspects of a museum exhibit might affect intended and actual environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs). Qualitative techniques were used to collect and analyze data from 31 highly engaged adult visitors to the Altered State: Climate Change in California exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. Certain messages and design elements in this exhibit were found to have a greater impact on participants’ intentions and behaviors. Hands-on activities appeared to have a larger effect, as did direct messages about specific, simple actions. Positive reinforcement of existing ERBs also seemed to have a direct influence on future actions. All participants voiced concerns about societal and cultural barriers to pro-environmental actions, but those who performed fewer ERBs were more likely to discuss belief-based barriers to change. These results have implications for future ISLE exhibits related to taking action for the environment

An investigation into the concept of motivation within design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis argues that there is a need for design practitioners and design researchers to more clearly articulate and understand the role of design in motivating and engaging human behaviour. Reflecting upon a multifaceted design process adopted in the course of the development of a Public Engagement with Science Exhibition; Ergonomics Real Design hosted at the Design Museum, London in late 2009 and early 2010, this thesis profiles research exploring the concept of human motivational engagement as part of the design and utilisation of a museum exhibition. The role of design and designers in motivating humans is discussed and a number of factors that impact upon the motivational engagement of humans in the museum environment are identified. These factors are synthesised in this thesis in the form of a Motivational Design Framework. The thesis builds upon its definition of factors regulating the motivation of users within the design of multi-touchpoint sociotechnical systems, specifically within the museum environment, through documentation and case-based reflection upon an applied design process that sought to adopt a philosophy of motivational design and elicit the motivational engagement of its participants. Finally this thesis presents an approach to evaluating the motivational engagement of users following their interaction with a designed, multi-touchpoint user experience. The results of these research objectives are recorded and discussed in terms of their implication for design practitioners interested in consciously motivating and engaging user behaviour. This thesis synthesises some key concepts, methods and tools of interest to designers and design researchers who wish to support the motivational energisation, engagement and generative behavioural potential of their users. This thesis advocates for, and contributes to, the formalisation of motivation as a tractable and syntactic concept within the field of exhibition design specifically, and within the broader field of design research more generally

Blending customisation, context-awareness and adaptivity for personalised tangible interaction in cultural heritage

Shaping personalization in a scenario of tangible, embedded and embodied interaction for cultural heritage involves challenges that go well beyond the requirements of implementing content personalization for portable mobile guides. Content is coupled with the physical experience of the objects, the space, and the facets of the context – being those personal or social – acquire a more prominent role. This paper presents a personalization framework to support complex scenarios that combine the physical, the digital, and the social dimensions of a visit. It is based on our experience in collaborating with curators and museum experts to understand and shape personalization in a way that is meaningful to them and to visitors alike, that is sustainable to implement and effective in managing the complexity of context-awareness. The pro posed approach features a decomposition of personalization into multiple layers of complexity that involve a blend of customization on the visitor’s initiative or according to the visitor’s profile, system context-awareness, and automatic adaptivity computed by the system based on the visitor’s behaviour model. We use a number of case studies of implemented exhibitions where this approach was used to illustrate its many facets and how adaptive techniques can be effectively complemented with interaction design, rich narratives and visitors’ choice to create deeply personal experiences. Overarching reflections spanning case studies and prototypes provide evidence of the viability of the proposed frame work, and illustrate the final effect of the user experience

Going to the museum together: The impact of including carers in museum programmes for people with dementia

Many people with dementia and carers receive support through the third sector, including through cultural arts interventions which aim to provide a meaningful, shared experience. Museums are one venue offering these interventions, including non-reminiscence-based programmes. Although there has been some research on the impact of museum programmes, it has tended to focus on positive outcomes. The impact of including carers in these programmes is also not well understood, which means it is not possible to say for which dyads they work, or do not work, or how to best support dyads in this setting. This thesis aimed to explore how including carers in museum programmes for people with dementia has an impact on the person with dementia, the carer, and the relationship between them, using a realist approach to develop theory. Theories were first developed through a realist review of the literature, and then tested in an evaluation at six museum sites, which included participant-observation of sessions and interviews. From these theories, a generalisable conceptual platform was developed on the core processes involved when carers are included. This research highlighted that the inclusion of carers has positive impacts, such as shared respite and opening up the museum, and negative impacts, such as highlighting losses and excess disability. The developed programme theories and conceptual platform considered how these outcomes may be generated. This resulted in a number of implications for further research, policy, and practice. The findings may also be applicable beyond museum programmes, and further research could use the theories and platform to consider how including carers may have an impact in other kinds of programmes for people with dementia, and in programmes for other kinds of dyads. This thesis suggests the inclusion of carers is not a neutral act, and careful consideration needs to go into how to support people with dementia and carers given the variety of positive and negative processes which can occur. Alongside making venues and programmes more dementia-friendly, there must also be a consideration of how they can become more carer-friendly

Producing the internet and development: an ethnography of internet café use in Accra, Ghana

The United Nation's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), that took place between 2003 and 2005, elevated the 'information society' to the level of 'gender equality' 'environmental sustainability' and 'human rights' as one of the central Development tropes of our time. The concept of the network has come to figure heavily in the political discourse of both developed and developing nations and transnational agencies. These organizations employ statistics, academic theories, popular wisdom, and utopian visions shaped by Western experiences to extrapolate an expected impact of new technologies on the developing world. However, to date there has been very little on-the-ground research on the diffusion and appropriation of these technologies as it is taking place in developing nations and how this might challenge and reorient the expectations of traditional Development perspectives. This thesis seeks to provide such a response drawing on the experiences of Internet café users in Accra, the capital city of Ghana where an estimated 500 to 1000 of these small businesses were in operation. Departing from the categories and hierarchies favoured within Development circles, my approach is to look holistically at the way the Internet was produced as a meaningful and useful tool through the practices of users. The practices that defined the Internet in Accra encompassed not only individual activities at the computer interface, but also other formal and informal, collective and everyday rituals such as story-telling, religious practices, and play and socializing among youth. A similar production process was observable in the activities of the Development experts and government officials who arrived in Accra in February 2005 to discuss the role of networking technologies in socio-economic development at the WSIS Africa regional conference. The activities of both groups reconstituted the Internet, Development and the relationship between the two, but along very divergent pathways

Artful social engagement :long-term interaction design within an international women's community

PhD ThesisLong-term commitments, a rich understanding of- and sensitivity towards identities are considered of value for researchers working within technology design to support community participation. However, few studies have explicitly discussed how researcher relationships are built and how communities negotiate their technology use around identities over time. This thesis presents the findings and insights from a three-year long, in-depth participatory project at an international women’s centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. The thesis contributes to interaction design research, and experience-centred design more specifically within social care communities. The research demonstrates how interdisciplinary approaches, combining critical methodological perspectives from feminist postcolonial studies with narrative inquiry and speculative design, can be used constructively in complex and sensitive community contexts. The thesis outlines how such approaches contribute opportunities for the negotiation and celebration of diverse community identities using technology. This is achieved through exploring how ‘dialogical aesthetics’, as articulated through socially engaged arts, can sustain conceptual resources and practical approaches to reflexively inquire into personal identities within communities. Through ‘space-making’ workshops, involving digital portraits and digital story making and through the design and use of a speculative photo-sharing device, the thesis provides insights into exploring and responding to identities, while engendering inspiration and resonance for sustainable future technical practices within a culturally diverse social care community

Hustadt, Inshallah : Learning from a participatory art project in a trans-local neighbourhood

My PhD dissertation investigates relationships between contemporary art and spatial practices It emphasising the creation of platforms for public participation as interventions into urban regeneration processes. The project has two essential objectives: a. To identify the potential within contemporary art for a critical analysis of an urban de velopment process from the location, in dialogue with people, and through direct par ticipatory spatial action; b. To propose a scenario for future operation that can instigate the inclusive change within our everyday environment and the wider domain of spatial practice. The PhD research results from my own practice and gives a detailed analysis of a three-year case study: Hustadt Project. The majority of Hustadt Project took place on location (Bochum, Germany) within a suburban setting. In cooperation with local inhabitants we established the context for and ultimately constructed a new Community Pavilion – a structural platform for participatory exchange. As my art practice is situated in-between architecture and design, sociology and urban studies, the process of the PhD research has been to emphasise my personal involvement and subjective observations utilising and transforming methods from these fields along with inventing new tools and strategies. I develop these methods from the context and the situation as a reaction to the process and therefore they are non-prescriptive, improvised, and reactive. In order to construct an argument in negotiation with local politicians, I introduce the form of spatial action by constructing performative events and inviting people to participate in them. More than accumulating knowledge, I’m interested in analysing it, using it, transforming it into a project where the result produces new relations with people onsite. It is important to emphasise that by using video and photo camera as the main tools within the research process, the research strategies I use transform my position from an observer of the situation to that of being observed. Thus the research questions I focus upon: 1. The relationship between the contemporary art production and urban regeneration process: What are the contemporary art and architecture references that have shaped my own practice? What is the process of activating public participation though an art practice? 2. The position that the artist occupies when becoming involved in the process of urban regeneration: What is the role of the artist working in the process of urban regeneration? How can an artist work within the urban regeneration process and keep her/his critical position? 3. The knowledge contribution to the critical spatial practice produced within the contemporary art discourse: What are the methods and strategies of my artistic research that differ from other disciplines? The final doctoral submission comprises of (1) a textual part with some graphic and photo material, (2) Hustadt Episodaire – narrative visual documentation, (3) Hustadt blog, which was produced while following the case study project, (4) an exhibition presenting the Hustadt Project Archive

Requisite Parental Involvement: Perceived Impact Upon Student Achievement and School Climate in a Magnet MiddleSchool

Parental involvement is considered important to a child’s education, whether it is working closely with the teacher to aid student learning or volunteering for participation in after school activities. This grounded theory study focuses on stakeholders’ perceptions of requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school. The three tenets of grounded theory include: the emergent theory from the categories of data; the premise that participants’ behavior has an underlying pattern that will emerge; and assurance that the participants, not the researcher, are the focus of the study. Data was collected from document analysis, interviews with administrators, teachers, a staff member, a community volunteer, and parents; as well as data collected from surveys of parents and teachers from the school. The survey data is both quantitative and qualitative. The data set for this research was comprehensive: 301 pages of correspondence, 48 pages of transcribed interviews, and 18 surveys. The surveys were submitted by both parents and teachers. The 6 teacher surveys submitted represent a return rate of 33.3%; the 12 parent surveys yielded a return rate of 5%. The five concepts that emerged from the data are: Regard, Team, Volunteer Opportunities, Propinquity, and Needs. The results indicate that social and economic capital informs requisite parental involvement in a magnet middle school, and its perceived impact upon student achievement and school climate