ABSTRACT There is increasing recognition that significant amounts of science learning take place over the course of one’s lifetime and much of this learning takes place outside of the formal educational settings. This learning is often facilitated by educators in these informal science settings. While much is known about educators in formal classroom settings, the research on informal science educators is nascent. This study aims to add to the literature through a survey of informal science educators’ levels of self-efficacy related to their work. The participants in this study (n = 400) completed a 35-item survey the survey which included 32 Likert scale questions on perceived levels of self-efficacy in different aspects of teaching in an informal science setting. When examining the results, the areas where the respondents felt less than skillful fell in areas related to facilitation and teaching about physical sciences concepts. Identifying areas where informal science educators feel less than skillful can help improve professional development opportunities by tailoring them to cover specific skills.

中文翻译：

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非正式科学中心的教育者自我效能评估

摘要 越来越多的人认识到，大量的科学学习发生在一个人的一生中，而且大部分学习发生在正规教育环境之外。在这些非正式的科学环境中，教育工作者通常会促进这种学习。虽然对正式课堂环境中的教育工作者了解很多，但对非正式科学教育工作者的研究尚处于起步阶段。本研究旨在通过对非正式科学教育者与其工作相关的自我效能水平的调查来增加文献。本研究的参与者 (n = 400) 完成了一项 35 项调查，该调查包括 32 个关于在非正式科学环境中教学的不同方面的自我效能感感知水平的李克特量表问题。检查结果时，受访者认为不太熟练的领域属于促进和教授物理科学概念的领域。确定非正式科学教育者认为技能不足的领域可以通过调整它们以涵盖特定技能来帮助改善专业发展机会。