What Drives Attendance at Informal Learning Activities? A Study of Two Art Programs

Multiple reasons shape how young people and families choose to participate in informal learning programs at museums and other settings. Youth interest is likely a factor, but so might be geographic proximity, institutional affiliation, household income, and race/ethnicity. We examined the relative impact of these factors through a comparative study of two art programs; one a small, neighborhood‐based organization focused on art and STEM, and the other a program in a well‐established art museum. The smaller program tended to draw youth from closer geographic proximity. Interest in art drove attendance at both programs, but institutional membership was also important. Demographic factors also were a factor, and race/ethnicity was more strongly associated with program placement than household income. We discuss the importance of better understanding of such factors as museums and other programs continue to grow as important sites for learning.     

University Natural History Museums: The Public Education Mission

University‐based natural history museums are specialized cultural institutions that serve diverse constituencies. On one hand, these museums promote scientific research and collections through the work of curators and students and must advance the universities' missions. On the other hand, they must provide exhibition and public programs for the local community, or if they are a state museum, serve the citizens of the entire state through these activities. The challenge for university‐based natural history museums is to achieve a balance among their activities and services, given available resources. In the twenty‐first century, university natural history museums must further adapt by promoting social awareness of topics such as biodiversity and fostering learning in informal and formal settings. The Florida Museum of Natural History, an official State museum located at the University of Florida, is a prime example of a comprehensive university museum with a broad spectrum of programs that promote and enhance learning activities.     

Providing Access to Engagement in Learning: The Potential of Universal Design for Learning in Museum Design

Following passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), many museums improved the accessibility of their facilities. Even so, individuals with disabilities still lag behind in participation and engagement in museum experiences. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides an alternate model for the design of museum programs and exhibit spaces, one that is more aligned to progressive concepts of disability, providing not only physical access but also access to engagement in learning. In this article we argue that UDL has the potential to substantially improve the design of informal learning environments. Through two illustrative examples, we describe how the UDL design guidelines can be used to improve the probability that engagement will occur as individuals interact with exhibits, programs, and people in museums.     

Learning in Children's Museums: Is It Really Happening?

This study examined what children learn while they are interacting with exhibits at a children's museum as well as the conditions that facilitate learning. Using naturalistic observations to get information on the kinds of observable learning that occurred in a variety of settings within the museum, the study found that much observable learning did occur and that different contexts supported different kinds and amounts of learning. Learning was more likely to occur with adult interaction than without, and certain types of exhibits invited more adult involvement than others. Examples of learning of relatively higher levels of cognitive complexity and higher degrees of generalizability were observed more rarely than examples of learning of lower complexity and less generalizability. Implications for children's museums and other settings of informal learning are discussed.     

Beyond Science: Implications of the LSIE Report for Art Museum Education

Abstract The Learning Science in Informal Environments report holds great potential for creating change among those who work in the field of science education. But to what extent can it inform other sectors of the informal education world? This article explores how the LSIE report might influence research and practice in art museums. By comparing the report to a recent study in art education, the authors point out areas of overlap and divergence relative to content and skills, identity, and communities of practice. We suggest several implications for how art museums and science museums might learn from one another. A call to action is made for further research and discussion about common learning goals and outcomes for the art museum experience.     

Motivational Factors and the Visitor Experience: A Comparison of Three Sites

Museums, art galleries, botanical gardens, national parks, science centers, zoos, aquaria and historic sites are important public learning institutions. The free‐choice learning offered in these settings is closely linked to visitors' intrinsic motivation, making it important to understand the motivational factors that impact on visitors' experiences. This paper presents data from a questionnaire administered to visitors at three sites: a museum, an art gallery, and an aquarium. Similarities and differences among the sites are reported in relation to visitors' expectations, perceptions of learning opportunities, engagement in motivated learning behaviors, and perceptions of the learning experience. The importance of learning to museum visitors and the unique opportunities and challenges of the museum in relation to other educational leisure settings are discussed. The authors argue that the study of motivational factors might contribute to the development of a common theoretical foundation for interpretation in museums and other informal learning settings.     

The Future of Three‐Dimensional Imaging and Museum Applications

Abstract Is it time for all museums to initiate large‐scale 3D digitization programs? We don’t yet know how 3D is going to change, replace, or integrate into current museum experience. Yet the possibilities are being actualized right now. What does 3D mean for museums? Digitizing museum objects in 3D (or the museums themselves, for that matter) with incredible accuracy and realism; examining the inside of a mummy; modeling collections in 3D; retaining virtual copies of vulnerable objects; all these and more already exist in the fast‐changing realm of 3D applications.     

国内外博物馆学习研究回顾与启示——基于Citespace的可视化分析

博物馆学习隶属于非正式学习领域,在我国教育研究中处于边缘地位,为了推进国内博物馆学习研究向纵深方向发展,需要把握国际相关研究的热点与前沿趋势。文章采用CiteSpace分析软件对国内外相关文献的发文量、关键词共现、聚类及突现等方面进行可视化分析。总结博物馆学习研究再出发的路径：利用现代信息技术,实现博物馆数字化学习;关注公众参与及影响因素,提高博物馆学习质量;理论与实践相结合,深化博物馆科学学习研究;基于博物馆学习结果多元性,开展纵向研究;立足本土文化,深化馆校合作实证研究。     

Equity of Access to Cultural Heritage: Museum Experience as a Facilitator of Learning and Socialization in Children with Autism

This article discusses a study focused on investigating the effects of an art museum cultural experience on learning and behaviors of visitors with special needs. The participants, selected by specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, were 10 families with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The author examined how the museum environment, with its opportunities for free‐choice, object‐based, and inquiry‐based learning, helped facilitate their educational and social needs. To record changes in the subjects' content knowledge and behavior, the author employed a mixed‐methods design, including the standardized Social Responsiveness Scale, parent surveys, behavioral observations, task evaluations, and parent interviews. The findings demonstrate that participation in a tailored educational museum program positively influences cognitive and social behaviors of children living with autism, thereby contributing to their overall well‐being. The paper also discusses implications for other museums nationwide working to establish quality access programs with long‐term benefits for special needs communities.     

Project ASTER III: A Model for Teacher Professional Development Integrating Science Museum Exhibits with State and National Science Education Content Standards

Abstract This article describes Project ASTER III (Active Science Teaching Encourages Reform), a science professional development program for early elementary teachers, which is based on the premise that people learn best by doing. Very few professional development programs focus on early childhood teacher development and how best to integrate informal science centers into teaching. In ASTER III, development teams—consisting of university scientists, science educators, K‐3 teachers, and educators from a hands‐on science museum—developed 5E lesson plans aligned with the Ohio Academic Content Standards and the National Science Education Standards in conjunction with the museum’s exhibits. This study explores the impact of the ASTER III model on teacher perceptions about the role and effect informal science museum visits have on subsequent teaching and student learning.     

Critical Questions at a Critical Time: Reflections on the Contributions of LSIE to Museum Practices

Abstract Writing from a science museum perspective, the authors argue that the Learning Science in Informal Environments report arrives at a critical time, when growing policy interest in informal learning environments provides new opportunities for the museum field but also introduces potential threats to autonomy, diversity, and creativity. The authors explore critical questions raised in the report, including: 1) whether and how we represent our subject matter as cultural fields of practice, as opposed to fixed collections of facts and artifacts; 2) how we ensure, at a time of increasing interest and scrutiny from policymakers, that we continue to design for a variety of learning opportunities both across and within our institutions, thus sustaining rich, robust learning for more diverse and inclusive audiences; 3) how we develop better assessment questions, methodologies, and instrumentation that can more effectively address the contributions museums make to local learning ecologies. The authors conclude that, at this juncture, it is just as important for the education research community to learn from the practices of the museum field, as it is for the museum field to learn from the research.     

Museum as Soup Kitchen

In this paper, I suggest that museums have not explored their potential opportunities enough when dealing with their communities under stressful conditions. Each reader, however, should decide when what I am talking about is no longer appropriate for museums in general or your museum in particular. While some museums have moved more in the direction of serving their communities, I am struck by how little philosophical change has actually taken place in most museums after a year into this universal economic downturn. I argue that incorporating a broader palette of social services may make institutions more useful, but at some point these institutions might cease to be traditional museums. My question would be: “Should you care?” I do not suggest that all museums become full‐service community centers, though some might explore that option. Perhaps the question might become: How do we expand our services so that we make museums’ important physical assets of safe civic space and objects useful for tangible three‐dimensional learning into more relevant programs that reach all levels of community, and are rated by many more as essential to their needs and their aspirations for their children?     

The Naturalist Center: Proof that museums can do more to maximize the learning potential of their collections

There may not be a more passionate group of learners than museum scientists, historians or artists. What if museum visitors had the same freedom to learn from museum collections as researchers do? At the Smithsonian Institution's Naturalist Center we not only examined the environmental factors that have nutured such passion for learning in museum researchers but also successfully reproduced them in a publicly accessible, open storage study collection. Three major functional elements were critical to the Center's success: (1) building a critical mass of information (collections, books, images, databases, etc.) (2) providing access to that information in ways that motivates the public to want to seek information out, and (3) fostering the cognitive skills of inquiry based learning to make the whole experience meaningful to the learner. By incorporating more elements of the learning ecosystem into public offerings, the public not only experiences what fuels museum researchers' unique passion for learning, but also heightens the public's understanding of the subject matter and the learning potential of museums.     

Children's Museum Experiences: Identifying Powerful Mediators of Learning

This article reports on a study of young children and the nature of their learning through museum experiences. Environments such as museums are physical and social spaces where visitors encounter objects and ideas which they interpret through their own experiences, customs, beliefs, and values. The study was conducted in four different museum environments: a natural and social history museum, an art gallery, a science center, and a hybrid art/social history museum. The subjects were four‐ to seven‐year old children. At the conclusion of a ten‐week, multi‐visit museum program, interviews were conducted with children to probe the saliency of their experiences and the ways in which they came to understand the museums they visited. Emergent from this study, we address several findings that indicate that museum‐based exhibits and programmatic experiences embedded in the common and familiar socio‐cultural context of the child's world, such as play and story, provide greater impact and meaning than do museum exhibits and experiences that are decontexualized in nature.     

Personal Beliefs and National Stories: Theater in Museums as a Tool for Exploring Historical Memory

How does what we remember about history relate to true historical understanding, and how can the museum become a location for these conversations? During the summer of 2011, the National Museum of American History challenged audiences to consider issues of historical memory and national history through the performance of an interactive museum theater program, The Time Trial of John Brown. Using the Time Trial approach as a case study, this article reveals that interactive theater in museums can provide a platform from which audiences assert their own historical understanding while learning firsthand about their role in creating a shared knowledge of American history. As the role of museums evolves in the twenty‐first century, new attention must be paid to this personal process of examining and creating history and memory through performance. It is through performance and participation that history and memory are both examined and created by the audience.     

Youth and Science: Engaging Adults as Advocates

This study documents how adult female volunteers, historically inexperienced and/or excluded from traditional practices of science, come to engage in science activities through an informal, museum‐ and community‐based context that helps them to appreciate science connections that are ultimately empowering. Such informal contexts, often thought to be marginal to prevailing educational beliefs and practices, can offer adults outside of the fields of science and education an entry into science learning and teaching, facilitating participation in legitimate and empowering ways. The focus is on three adult female members' unique trajectories of participation, leading to sustained commitment and contribution, or “core member status.” Each draws on different aspects of the program that she finds most salient, illustrating how different elements can serve as motivators for initial engagement, and can support continuation along the trajectory of participation in an informal science program for girls.     

Making a Difference in the Lives of Youth: Mapping Success with the “Six Cs”

Many museums offer specialized programs for young people during out‐of‐school time, yet the consequences of such programs are not well documented. This article explores the potential utility of borrowing a conceptual framework from the youth development literature as a tool for assessment. The authors map findings from three studies of museum youth programs onto the youth development framework as an exercise in understanding the extent to which this model may be useful in developing museum youth programs. Results from this preliminary analysis demonstrate that the framework could serve as a viable tool for program design, and could offer a clear, grounded framework with common language for articulating program impacts often known intuitively and/or anecdotally but not formalized.     

Bringing Leonardo to Life: Introducing Students to the Codex Leicester

As natural history museums are becoming more state-of-the-art, integrating computer technology and other interactive components into their exhibits, challenges arise as to how best incorporate these elements into the learning that occurs in a traditional museum setting. In October of 1996, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) hosted the exhibition Leonardo's Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science, which included interactive computer stations as well as ten working models designed specifically for the exhibition. This article explores the museum's approach to making use of these interactives in planning and implementing a school program for this exhibition. The program was experimental in its format, given the short run of this exhibition, as well as limited planning time. The purpose of this article is to determine what a museum can do to offer quality programs that reach as many students as possible when working under time constraints.     

Family Learning in Museums: A Bibliographic Review

The literature on family behavior in informal science settings consists primarily of observational studies of behavior, focusing on generation and gender roles and learning strategies. Much effort has been expended studying the family visit, building the foundation for further study. A question that remains is: Can we infer learning from observations of learning behavior among family members? The literature in this annotated bibliography addresses issues involved in understanding the family learning process — what a family is, why families visit museums, how they behave in museums, how they learn in museums, and measuring learning.     

Using 3D Printing to Enhance Understanding and Engagement with Young Audiences: Lessons from Workshops in a Museum

This paper details findings from a collaborative research project that studied children learning to 3D print in a museum, and provides an overview of the study design to improve related future programs. We assessed young visitors’ capacity to grasp the technical specificities of 3D printing, as well as their engagement with the cultural history of shoemaking through the museum's collection. Combining the museum's existing pedagogical resources with hands‐on technology experiences designed by Semaphore researchers, this study enabled both researchers and museum education staff to evaluate the use of 3D‐driven curriculum and engagement materials designed for children visiting cultural heritage museums. This study raises critical questions regarding the practicality of deploying 3D media to engage young learners in museums, and this paper illuminates the challenges in developing models for children to put historical and contextual information into practice.