Failing together: Interactive patterns of problem-solving between youth and educators in informal stem environments

Abstract

By incorporating learning-through-failure into facilitation, educators can offer learners the opportunity to promote their creativity and problem-solving skills. However, more research is needed to explore the implementation of this pedagogical approach. In this study, we utilized sequential analysis to examine common failure-based problem-solving patterns between educators and learners during informal STEM-based museum activities. Our data included 38 self-recorded videos of museum educators interacting with a learner or a group of learners in either a camp, drop-in exhibit, or a class setting. Through sequential analysis, the results demonstrate the joint nature of educator-learner interactions, while also emphasizing the educator's crucial role in guiding learners through the problem-solving cycle with pedagogical moves. Specifically, the results of this study highlight the importance of an educator’s use of ‘prompting’ to motivate the learners to engage in the cycle. Simultaneously, we observed how the collaborative nature of interactions, where educators and learners engaged in problem-solving roles, supported the learners in demonstrating creativity and agency. These findings contribute to both theory and practice by reframing failure as a co-constructed learning experience and identifying facilitation strategies that support creativity and problem-solving in informal STEM settings.