Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Serious fun : life-deep learning of koi hobbyists

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/b2773z60x

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Hobby activities can be viewed through the lens of informal, free-choice learning. A wide range of hobbies combine fun and learning-intensive practices, and can contribute to scientific literacy. Hobby learning involves clear goal orientation, persistence and effort, and often results in more richly and strongly connected knowledge; traits highly valued in both in and out-of-school science learning. In this study, I used koi hobbyists as subjects to discover and explore hobbyists' information-seeking strategies under different learning scenarios. I approached koi hobbyists' learning about koi and their koi hobby in both quantitative and qualitative ways. I designed a Stage of Engagement Model to illustrate koi hobbyists' engagement with their hobby, and adapted Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning to explain how personal, socio-cultural and physical contextual factors affect koi hobbyists' learning. An instrument was developed to assess koi hobbyists' experience with keeping koi, knowledge about the hobby, motivation/goals, interaction with other hobbyists, and the information-seeking strategies they used under different learning scenarios. I administered this questionnaire to koi hobbyist communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and online. Based on the quantitative analysis, the results supported my hypotheses that koi hobbyists chose different information-seeking strategies based on personal contextual factors such as previous experience, motivation and learning goals; socio-cultural contextual factors such as interactions with other koi hobbyists; and physical contextual factors such as the nature of the problems they encounter. Koi hobbyists also chose different information-seeking strategies based upon their stage of engagement with their hobby. The long-term potential of this study is to offer insights into how learners construct their knowledge by applying different learning strategies under different personal, socio-cultural and physical circumstances, and to provide a framework for the future study of other kinds of hobbies and hobbyists that will help to promote public scientific literacy.
License
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Committee Member
Academic Affiliation
Non-Academic Affiliation
Subject
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items