|
In 2002, the Center for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS)
was funded by the National Science Foundation to create a
program of research, scholarship, and leadership in the arena
of informal learning and the relationship of informal science
institutions and schools.
CILS
addresses "pressing problems confronting K-12 science
education" by focusing on key components of the national
science education infrastructure. In particular, CILS is concerned
with making K-12 science education more compelling and accessible
to a diverse student population, including students who come
from families with little formal experience with K-12 schools
and science learning. CILS does this through studying science
learning in out-of-school settings, including informal science
institutions, and building programmatic bridges between out-of-school
and school science learning. In tandem with these studies,
CILS seeks to build on and strengthen modes and methods of
engagement and conceptual development commonly found in those
settings.
CILS does this through three means:
- The generation of new academic and practitioner
leadership through graduate and professional development
programs. read more>
|
- The generation of new knowledge and theory through research. read more>
|
- The creation of mechanisms that effectively connect
research and practice, so that the research is both
useful to, and used by, the field (in the case defined
as science education leaders and those who support
them, in K-12 schools, districts, IHEs, and informal
science institutions.) read
more>
|
Major outcomes of CILS will include strengthened alliances
between informal learning institutions and schools as well
as broadened conceptions of learning and science learning
in research, academic, and K-12 communities.
|
