Learning Innovation Initiatives

Recently, the Institute gathered together learning practitioners from a variety of fields for multi-day forums. Participants shared with each other the results of research and evaluation as they related to successful strategies. They then co-authored publications documenting the Initiatives that were subsequently edited and distributed by the Institute.

Two examples of Learning Innovation Initiatives are:

In Principle, In Practice: A Learning Innovation Initiative

A diverse group of professionals including prominent practitioners, managers, evaluators, researchers, and policy and grant makers joined together at our invitation to establish frameworks for practice based in research and shaped by the real-world needs and goals of museum education professionals. The participants acknowledged that considerable progress has been made in understanding how visitors learn in the museum environment, and agreed that there is still much to learn about this complex process, and improvements to be made to our research methodology in this field. The accompanying book, In Principle, In Practice, was published by Altamira Press in May 2007. (Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0318868)

Free Choice Learning and the Environment: A Learning Innovation Initiative

We created this initiative in order to build a shared sense of purpose among environmental education stakeholders, with the broader goal of advancing the concept of Free Choice Learning in this particular field. Diverse professionals such as practitioners, academics, policy makers, and grant makers worked together to build consensus on evaluation best practices, and to influence the direction of future research. Publication forthcoming in Spring 2008. Supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park®, Environmental Education Research, National Park Foundation, National Environmental Education Training Foundation, the North American Association for Environmental Education, and the Ohio State University Extension.)