The effectiveness of interpretive methods in informal educational facilities : an experimental study with reference to marine parks

Interpretation has been used in many tourism sectors as a technique in achieving building hannony between resources and human needs. The objectives of this study are to identify the types of the interpretive methods used, and to evaluate their effectiveness, in marine parks. This study reviews the design principles of an effective interpretation for marine wildlife tourism, and adopts Drams' five design principles (1997) into a conceptual framework. Enjoyment increase, knowledge gain, attitude and intention change, and behaviour modification were used as key indicators in the assessment of the interpretive effectiveness of the Vancouver Aquarium (VA) and Marineland Canada (MC). Since on-site research is unavailable, a virtual tour is created to represent the interpretive experiences in the two study sites. Self-administered questionnaires are used to measure responses. Through comparing responses to the questionnaires (pre-, post-virtual tours and follow-up), this study found that interpretation increased enjoyment and added to respondents' knowledge. Although the changes in attitudes and intentions are not significant, the findings indicate that attitude and intention changes did occur as a result of interpretation, but only to a limited extent. Overall results suggest that more techniques should be added to enhance the effectiveness of the interpretation in marine parks or self-guiding tours, and with careful design, virtual tours are the innovative interpretation techniques for marine parks or informal educational facilities.

Ontario high school sport : an investigation of organizational design and its context

In 2002, The Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) identified that in providing extracurricular sport programs schools are faced with the 'new realities' of the education system. Although research has been conducted exploring the pressures impacting the provision of extracurricular school sport (Donnelly, Mcloy, Petherick, & Safai, 2000), few studies within the field have focused on understanding extracurricular school sport from an organizational level. The focus of this study was to examine the organizational design (structure, systems, and values) of the extracurricular sport department within three Ontario high schools, as well as to understand the context within which the departments exist. A qualitative multiple case study design was adopted and three public high schools were selected from one district school board in Ontario to represent the cases under investigation. Interviews, observations and documents were used to analyze the extracurricular sport department design of each case and to better understand the context within which the departments exist. As the result of the analysis of the structure, systems and values of each case, two designs emerged- Design KT1 and Design KT2. Differences in the characteristics of design archetype KT1 and KT2 centered on the design dimension of values, and therefore this study identified that contrasting organizational values reflect differences in design types. The characteristics of the Kitchen Table archetype were found to be transferable to the sub-sector of extracurricular school sport, and therefore this research provides a springboard for further research in organizational design within the education sector of extracurricular high school sport. Interconnections were found between the data associated with the external and internal contexts within which the extracurricular sport departments exist. The analysis of the internal context indicated the important role played by organizational members in shaping the context within which the departments exist. The analysis of the external context highlighted the institutional pressures that were present within the education environment. Both political and cultural expectations related to the role of extracurricular sport within schools were visible and were subsequently used by the high schools to create legitimacy and prestige, and to access resources.

Conceptualizing Institutional Capacity Building Through a Learning Process Set in Motion by a Foundation

Employing critical pedagogy and transformative theory as a theoretical framework, I examined a learning process associated with building capacity in community-based organizations (CBOs) through an investigation of the Institutional Capacity Building Program (ICBP) initiated by a Foundation. The study sought to: (a) examine the importance of institutional capacity building for individual and community development; (b) investigate elements of a process associated with a program and characteristics of a learning process for building capacity in CBOs; and (c) analyze the Foundation’s approach to synthesizing, systematizing, and sharing learning. The study used a narrative research design that included 3 one-on-one, hour-long interviews with 2 women having unique vantage points in ICBP: one is a program facilitator working at the Foundation and the other runs a CBO supported by the Foundation. The interviews’ semistructured questions allowed interviewees to share stories regarding their experience with the learning process of ICB and enabled themes to emerge from their day-to-day experience. Through the analysis of this learning process for institutional capacity building, a few lessons can be drawn from the experience of the Foundation.