New Tools Support Career Excellence in Informal Learning

We think you’ll likely agree that what we do in our field is exciting and rewarding—informal learning opens up so many diverse opportunities for people to explore our world. This means it also opens up just as many diverse opportunities to support that exploration through career paths, from park naturalists to curriculum developers. 

Yet this flexible and wide range of potential professions means it can sometimes be challenging to identify career goals and the right learning to help you meet those goals. Our friends at the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC), alongside COSI’s Center for Research & Evaluation, Oregon State University’s STEM Research Center, and other partners, just released a new tool to help our field meet this challenge.

Professional Pathways in Informal STEM Learning (ISL) is a suite of tools that supports professional learning and career development for anyone who works in ISL, whether they are just starting their careers or leading an institution. Three free tools make up Pathways:

• A Framework that identifies the skills and knowledge (i.e., competencies) identified by ISL professionals as being important to their daily work, whether it’s grant writing, exhibit development, or welcoming visitors.
• A Self-Assessment that helps you reflect on which competencies you use in your work and which you’d like to develop and/or finetune.
• A Learning Plan that guides you in identifying your professional development goals and a path for how to reach them.

Lastly, a hand-picked selection of resources—including professional organizations, articles, online courses, and more—provides further support.

What excites us about these tools is that they give environmental education professionals in informal STEM learning settings a structured way to grow their skills, reflect on their practice, and navigate the complex relationships between their organizations and the communities they serve. With a clear framework, self-assessment, and learning plan, these tools support collaboration, leadership, and effective program design, helping both new and experienced educators build the competencies that make their work impactful and sustainable.

We also appreciate how Pathways complements NAAEE's Guidelines for Excellence by giving educators a practical, self-directed way to build the skills needed to create balanced, accurate, and engaging environmental education programs and materials.

We hope you will explore and apply Pathways and let us know what you think. If you’d like to learn more, don’t miss ASTC’s informational webinar on Tuesday, August 26 from 2:00–2:45 ET.