What do people learn from visiting museums and how do they learn it? The editors approach this question by focusing on conversations as both the process and the outcome of museum learning. People do not come to museums to talk, but they often do talk. This talk can drift from discussions of managing the visit, to remembrances of family members and friends not present, to close analyses of particular objects or displays. This volume explores how these conversations reflect and change a visitor's identity, discipline-specific knowledge, and engagement with an informal learning environment that
Research on human–robot interaction has often ignored the human cognitive changes that might occur when humans and robots work together to solve problems. Facilitating human–robot collaboration will require understanding how the collaboration functions system-wide. The authors present detailed examples drawn from a study of children and an autonomous rover, and examine how children’s beliefs can guide the way they interact with and learn about the robot. The data suggest that better collaboration might require that robots be designed to maximize their relationship potential with specific users
This study compared grandparent–grandchild groups who experienced an informal science exhibition by visiting a museum or by visiting a website. Although intergenerational learning is often the focus of visitor research, few studies have focused specifically on grandparents as an audience. Do they have unique intergenerational needs that museums and websites are not yet supporting? Do they find museums and websites to be good places to learn alongside their grandchildren? The authors’ findings suggested that grandparents prefer museums as locations for intergenerational learning because the museum
The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences.
Understanding the visitor experience provides essential insights into how museums can affect people’s lives. Personal drives, group identity, decision-making and meaning-making strategies, memory, and leisure preferences, all enter into the visitor experience, which extends far beyond the walls of the institution both in time and space. Drawing upon a career in studying museum visitors, renowned researcher John Falk attempts to create a predictive model of visitor experience, one that can help museum professionals better meet those visitors’ needs. He identifies five key types of visitors who
The Museum Experience is the first book to take the "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit. It integrates the authors' original research with that from a wide variety of disciplines as well as museum and visitor studies ranging from science centers and zoos to art and natural history museums. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience gives museum professionals a thorough introduction to what is known about why people go to museums, what they do there, and what they learn. This book is an essential reference for all museum professionals concerned with communicating with the
This paper advances the thesis that museum visitors' identities, motivations and learning are inextricably intertwined. All individuals enact multiple identities, many of which are situational and constructed in response to a social and physical context. Identity influences motivations, which in turn directly influence behavior and learning. Visitors to museums tend to enact one or various combinations of five museum-specific identities, described here as: explorer; facilitator; professional/hobbyist; experience seeker; and spiritual pilgrim. Preliminary findings suggest that these identity
It has been argued that visitors' pre-visit “agendas” directly influence visits. This study attempted to directly test the effects of different museum visit agendas on visitor learning. Two new tools were developed for this purpose: (1) a tool for measuring visitor agendas; and (2) a tool for measuring visitor learning (Personal Meaning Mapping). Visitor agenda was defined as having two dimensions: motivations and strategies. Personal Meaning Mapping is a constructivist approach that measures change in understanding along four semi-independent dimensions: extent, breadth, depth, and mastery
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John H FalkTheano MoussouriDouglas Coulson
In 1984, to begin addressing the issue of long-term learning in museums, [the authors] initiated a series of museum recollection studies. At the time, it seemed critical to understand memories of museums more broadly, to investigate their components, saliency, and persistence, both soon after the experience and long after. [They] began with a series of open-ended, ethnographic-style interviews, conducting the first 11 over a period fo two years. These early interviews proved so interesting and useful that [they] have continued to build on this line of research, as have many others. What does
This study investigated variables that influence the utilization of museums by African Americans. A sample of 333 African Americans from six Eastern U.S. communities were interviewed at home about their leisure activities; particularly, their use of museum-like settings. Key variables that influenced museum visits were income, education, the community in which individuals lived, childhood experiences and participation in church-related activities. Although SES, cultural differences and latent racism impacted present-day African American use/non-use of museums, historic patterns of museum use
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Institute for Learning InnovationJohn H Falk
Millions of people visit science museums every year (Kimche, 1978; Koran & Dierking-Shafter, 1982). Accordingly, a great deal has been written in the last few years about hte value of out-of-school learning experiences, museum experiences in particular, for enhancing scientific literacy (c.f. Kimche, 1978; Koran & Baker, 1978; Tressel, 1980; Falk, 1982a). In this paper, [the authors] will discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of museums as agents for science learning.
A study to assess the impact of school field trips on attitudes, behavior, and learning was conducted with 196 third and fifth grade children. Half the children went on an all-day field trip to a nature center to learn about the biology of trees; the other half were taught the same lesson outside their classroom during their regular science period. As measured by pre- and posttests, field experiences resulted in significant immediate learning and 30-day retention for all groups. Observational measures revealed that student behavior varied as a function of age and environmental context. A model