MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH TO EXAMINE PARTICIPANT MOTIVATIONS IN INFORMAL GEOSCIENCE LEARNING

This study examined participant motivations and learning during EarthCaching, a program that engages hundreds of thousands of people each year in a participatory earth science informal learning experience. The project goal was to examine individuals’ motivations for participation and to determine if participation leads to self-reported positive outcomes such as increased earth science knowledge. Because no baseline data were available, this was an exploratory study to uncover relationships among participation, motivation, and learning that could inform improvements to the EarthCache educational experience.

The research design used mixed methods to collect data from EarthCache participants about their experiences. At an annual EarthCache conference the project team interviewed 14 highly experienced participants with the goal of understanding how the individual participated in EarthCaching, what motivated him/her to continue, and what s/he perceived to be the value of the program. Responses to these semi-structured interviews informed the development of an online survey consisting of 32 selected-response and partially open-ended response questions, which was advertised in the program newsletter and website. The survey included questions on level and frequency of participation, motivation, goals, barriers, perceived learning, and basic demographics. In a second phase of qualitative data collection, we conducted semi-structured phone interviews with an additional 42 participants. For these interviews we used a purposeful sampling strategy, seeking participants across a range of experience levels, from more frequent to infrequent participation, and with representation across different geographic, gender, age, and socio-economic status groups. Interview data were analyzed using open coding, a method for identifying concepts and categories that emerged from interviews.

The rationale for our methodology was based on the exploratory nature of the research. The first interviews provided foundational information needed to prepare a web-based survey that had relevant response choices and could reach a large number of participants. The second interview phase enabled us to probe the meaning of the survey results and explore participant behaviors, motivations, and learning in greater depth.