The Repository @ St. Cloud State

Open Access Knowledge and Scholarship

Date of Award

5-2017

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Child and Family Studies: Family Studies: M.S.

Department

Child and Family Studies

College

School of Education

First Advisor

Glen Palm

Second Advisor

JoAnn Johnson

Third Advisor

Marcia Thompson

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

Parent education, children's museums

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the possibilities for parent education within a children’s museum. The three critical components of parent education were considered: Parent-child learn and explore time; parent observation and parent discussion.

A café style focus group format was used to gather data for this study to allow the participants to freely express thoughts and ideas. Fourteen licensed parent educators attended one of four focus group sessions. Each focus group session included a video, a case summary and power point that generated common themes and insights that guided group discussion. Notes and transcripts from audio recordings were used to identify themes. Participants shared ideas for engaging parents in the critical components and suggestions for activity areas in a children’s museum.

Future research about the roles and influences of parent educators in the programming of children’s museums remains to be explored.

Comments/Acknowledgements

To Dr. Glen Palm for his expertise and enthusiasm of this project.

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