https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0266-5671
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Abstract
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 interactions with facilitators are unexpected. The present study contributes to this line of literature by describing a quasi-experimental study that assessed the effects of exhibition facilitation led by community stewards using a trauma-informed approach in an outdoor, freely accessible civic plaza. Video observation and visitor interview data were collected. The present study found that facilitation increased visitors’ exhibit usage, overall satisfaction, and some but not all assessed areas of affective and metacognitive learning. The study highlights the value of research conducted in partnership and the power of content-humanizing facilitation.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the many wonderful Exploratorium Middle Ground team members for all their contributions to that project: Kimberly Alvarado, Josh Bacigalupi, Emma Bailey, Eileen Campbell, David Chang, Gabriel Ehrlich, Adam Esposito, Steve Gennrich, Dana Goldberg, Meghan Kroning, Cynthia Lee, Sue Pomon, Phoebe Schenker, Doug Thistlewolf, David Torgersen and Jenny Villagran. We are so grateful to the Urban Alchemy Practitioners who served as co-researchers or facilitators: Allen Gerrue, Michelle Joe, Kevin Lee, Timothy Smith and Jesse Zamora. We appreciate all our partners on the project: Barakah Aly, Chris Cardiel, Randy Carter, Amy Cohen, Thomas Fortin, Julie Flynn, Louie Hammonds, Neil Hrushowy, Manny Lee, Elena Madison, Greg Nottage, Romie Nottage, Allison Wyckoff and Nina Simon. And finally, we thank our advisory group members: Larry Bell, Hugh McDonald and Jeff Risom.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In the methods, results and discussion sections, “we” refers to the Exploratorium research team, led by Hsin-Yi Chien and Josh Gutwill, the first and the second authors.
2 When evaluating the video data collected for the summative evaluation, the external Middle Ground summative evaluators used the first 10 min of each video as their sampling window (Garibay Group. Citation2021). Using the same sampling strategy allowed for comparisons and cross-referencing. We defined exhibit use as stopping with feet planted and facing an exhibit for 17 s or more (Serrell, Citation1998). The decision to track visitors who used an exhibit for at least 17 s was based on the average sweep rate (SRI) of 435.7 square feet per minute (Serrell, Citation1998). The Middle Ground exhibition was approximately 1500 square feet and featured 12 unique exhibits (excluding the introduction panel). Following this SRI benchmark, our analysis yielded that an average visitor ought to spend no less than 17 s at a single exhibit.
3 To calculate dwell time, research assistants were instructed to record two key timestamps for each sampled individual: (1) the onset timestamp, marked by the first moment when the individual either stopped and faced an exhibition cluster/exhibit or initiated physical contact with an exhibit, provided they remained in this engagement for a minimum of 17 s; and (2) the offset timestamp, noted at the final moment the individual remained facing the exhibition cluster/exhibit before leaving the entire plaza area. Dwell time was then calculated as the interval between these two timestamps. While we treated the use of tables and chairs provided in the Middle Ground area as a type of exhibit engagement in our analysis of video recording data, visitors who only used tables and chairs during the whole time they were in the Middle Ground exhibition area were excluded from our analysis. In addition, visitors who appeared to have pre-existing relationships with the facilitators (e.g., waving at or hugging the facilitators when they entered the Middle Ground exhibition area) were removed from the analysis.
4 The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status is a pictorial representation that uses a 10-step ladder to symbolize social hierarchy, with the top of the ladder representing people who have the most money, education, and respected jobs. Participants were asked to ask to mark where they felt like they stood on this symbolic ladder compared to other people in the United States.
5 One reviewer pointed out that the question starter “Who or what motivated you…” might appear leading. Although the internal validity threat associated with this leading bias was controlled for by using a quasi-experimental design, we acknowledge that the wording of this question might introduce bias, and we plan to modify it in future studies.
6 Effect size measures r (an effect size measure for the Mann-Whitney U test) and phi (φ; an effect size measure for the Chi-Square test of independence) are considered small but notable at .1, medium at .3, and large at .4 or greater (Cohen, Citation1988).
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Notes on contributors
Hsin-Yi Chien
Hsin-Yi Chien is a Researcher at the Exploratorium. Her work includes quantitative analyses of visitors’ experiences, research on learning at exhibits, and culturally responsive research methodology and exhibition design.
Joshua P. Gutwill
Josh Gutwill was the Director of Visitor Research and Evaluation at the Exploratorium, the museum of science, art and human perception in San Francisco, when the Middle Ground project was carried out. He is now the Director of the Clean Conferencing Institute, a nonprofit R&D firm dedicated to improving virtual conferencing in order to fight climate change and promote more accessible professional meetings.
Robert Dixon
Robert Dixon is Director/Manager of Urban Site Education and Researcher at Urban Alchemy. Mr. Dixon has dedicated himself to transforming people and urban spaces with respect and compassion and promoting fitness and nutrition throughout northern California.
Louie Hammonds
Louie Hammonds is Director of Acquisition, Talent and Recruitment for Urban Alchemy. He trains Urban Alchemy staff to enact the mission of transforming the energy in traumatized urban spaces where extreme poverty meets homelessness, mental illness and addiction.
Kevin Lee
Kevin Lee is a Director at Urban Alchemy and works to heal communities at the intersection of extreme poverty, addiction, mental illness, and homelessness.
Cecilia Garibay
Cecilia Garibay, PhD, Principal of Garibay Group, specializes in equity-focused research, evaluation, and organizational change in museums and other cultural institutions. Her goal is to help organizations make systemic change and share power with marginalized communities in order to reshape the cultural and educational landscape.
Toni Dancstep
Toni Dancstep is a Program Director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Research on Learning. Dancstep’s authorship was supported while serving at the National Science Foundation as part of the Foundation’s IRD program. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Shannon K. McManimon
Shannon K. McManimon was Associate Professor at SUNY New Paltz where she coordinated the Social Justice Educational Studies master’s degree program when the Middle Ground project was carried out. She is now is Associate Professor and Program Director of the interdisciplinary Ethical Leadership Doctorate in Education at Viterbo University. Her work explores social justice teaching, learning, and advocacy in informal and formal settings.