Toward an agenda for advancing research on science learning in out-of-school settings

In 1999, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Informal Science Education with the charge to clarify just what constituted this aspect of science learning. One important result is the Policy Statement that appears in this issue. In terms of a direction for a research agenda in this arena, the authors believe that the broad scope captured in this Policy Statement is an excellent jumping-off point. The Ad Hoc Committee's Policy Statement focuses on six issues that relate to conducting research in the domain of out-of-school science learning. In this article, the authors elaborate upon those issues, suggesting six avenues for research. They think of these avenues as existing narrow streets that need to be broadened and lengthened to explore and understand science learning as a truly holistic endeavour. In this spirit, in the sections that follow they discuss each of these avenues in turn - what they are, what we already know - and, along the way, they attempt to signpost further lanes of inquiry. For each avenue, the corresponding issue in the Policy Statement is included in italics. [Author abstract, ed]