Museum Education and Learning
Scott Paris
[Editor's Note: Scott Paris, Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, sent Robert L. Russell, Co-Editor, ILR, the syllabus he developed for his course "Museum Education and Learning" at the University of Michigan. Russell thought ILR readers might find the questions Paris poses about museum learning and the readings he has selected in relation to these questions of great interest. Paris has a substantial body of research published in a wide variety of academic journals. In recent years, he has conducted research in science museum settings. Much of this research has been conducted at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Paris's course syllabus (edited by Russell) is presented below.]
Course Overview
Families, individuals, and students visit museums and community institutions for a variety of purposes including leisure, education, and curiosity. The course will examine visitors' experiences in museums and discuss what they learn during their visits and how museums create long-term impact on visitors. This inquiry will involve force examining the notions of learning and transformative experiences of visitors; consider the parameters of contexts that support or impede learning; stimulate the examinion of the characteristics of the visitors; and analyze the social dynamics of the museum experience. The challenge of understanding so many complex variables and their interactions is daunting, especially considering the variety of conceptual approaches we apply to the issues. The course is oriented more to the identification of important issues and questions rather than answers.
Required Textbooks
Falk, J.H. and L.D. Dierking. 1992. The Museum Experience. Washington, D.C.: Whalesback Books.
Falk, J.L., and L.D. Dierking, eds. 1995. Public Institutions for Personal Learning: Establishing a Research Agenda. Washington, D.C: American Association of Museums.
Roberts, L. 1997. From Knowledge to Narrative. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Week 1: Introduction to the Course
What are the central issues in museum education?
What is the history of the field?
What are some representative theories and methods?
Hooper-Greenhill, E. "Museum Education." In The Educational Role of the Museum, edited by E. Hooper-Greenhill, 229-257. London: Routledge, 1994.
Week 2: Contexts of Museum Experiences
Museum experiences reflect multiple interactions among physical, social, and personal contexts. We will discuss Falk & Dierking's Interactive Experience Model (IEM) and consider:
What are the key features of each context
in the IEM?
How can the contexts be considered or engineered to foster learning?
What are the advantages and disadvantages
of a contextual model for research, evaluation, and exhibition design?
Falk & Dierking. 1992. Chapters 1 through 6.
Falk & Dierking, eds. 1995. Chapters by Hedge and Evans.
Week 3: Learning, Memory, and Motivation in Museums
One of the troubling problems in museum education is finding the appropriate terms to capture (and assess, promote, etc.) the consequences of visitors' experiences. "Learning" seems unduly narrow, yet "residue" and "long-term impact" seem vague and lack the psychological grounding needed for understanding the processes of change.
What is the nature of learning and how
is it relevant to the mission of a museum?
Are there varieties of learning that vary by visitor and museum?
How do visitors' memories and motivational characteristics change as a
function of museum experiences?
What are the values and liabilities
of importing psychological and educational terms from school contexts
to understand museum experiences?
Falk & Dierking. 1992. Chapters 7 & 8.
Falk & Dierking. 1995. Introduction; chapters by: Falk, Dierking, and Holland; Roschell; Herman and Plude; Csikszentmihalyi and Hermanson.
Anderson, D. and K.B. Lucas. 1997. "The Effectiveness of Orienting Students to the Physical Features of a Science Museum Prior to Visitation." Research in Science Education, 27(4): 485-495.
Falk, J.H., T. Moussouri and D. Coulson. 1998. "The Effect of Visitors' Agendas on Museum Learning." Curator, 41(2): 107-120.
McManus, P.M. 1993. "Memories as Indicators of the Impact of Museum Visits." Museum Management and Curatorship, 12: 367-380.
Week 4: Creating and Assessing Museum Experiences
One of the primary missions of museum educators
is to create experiences for visitors. We will consider how visits can
be organized for the casual visitor and school groups and consider how
structuring the experience alters the visit. Exhibition design, physical
pathways, labels and text, and interpreters and docents all contribute
to the experience. We will also consider how to study and assess these
design features in the environment and consider the implications of the
Annapolis conference research agenda for learning in various museums.
Should the museum experience be structured for visitors?
What are the pros and cons of various design
features that guide visitors to specific experiences?
What methods and theories are heuristic
for studying learning, conceived broadly, in various museums?
Required Readings:
Falk & Dierking. 1992. Chapters 9-11.
Falk & Dierking, eds. 1995. pp.23-34 and pp. 127-140.
Optional Readings:
Allen, S. 1997. "Using Scientific Inquiry Activities in Exhibit Explanations." Science Education, 81(6): 715-734.
Gelman, R., C.M. Massey and M. McManus. 1991. "Characterizing Supporting Environments for Cognitive Development: Lessons from a Children's Museum." In Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, edited by L.B. Resnick, J.M. Levine and S.D. Teasley, pp. 226-256. Washington, DC: APA.
Schauble, L. and Bartlett, K. 1997. "Constructing a Science Gallery for Children and Families: The Role of Research in an Innovative Design Process." Science Education, 81(6): 781-793.
Week 5: Museum Visit and Observation
Choose a museum that you have not visited (ever or recently) and visit it with a classmate or friend. Observe visitors as they are engaged with several exhibits and note the features of their experiences that foster or impede learning, motivation, affect, memory, or other successful interactions. Use the IEM or other course material to interpret the visitors' experiences.
Week 6: Situated Activity and the Culture of Practice
A growing number of researchers espouse socio-cognitive and socio-cultural theories of learning to analyze learning wherever it occurs. The key features include: the co-construction of meaning with social guidance and collaboration; attention to contextual constraints such as history, politics, and culture; analyses of unique and immediate situational constraints; and consideration for repeated and enduring habits or practices that shape expertise. These ideas extend Vygotsky's concepts of "interpsychological planes of functioning" and the "zone of proximal development" to elaborated concepts of participation, activity, and identity. These perspectives may be especially valuable for understanding informal learning and lead us to ask:
What additional information is provided
by viewing museum experiences through the lenses of socio-cognitive and
socio-cultural theories?
How do participatory, collaborative,
and scaffolded social arrangements operate in museum contexts?
How can museums foster "cultures
of practice"among visitors?
Falk & Dierking, eds. 1995. Chapters by Ogbu and Matusov & Rogoff.
Ansbacher, T. 1998. "John Dewey's Experience and Education: Lessons for Museums." Curator, 41(1).
Lave, J. "Situating Learning in Communities of Practice." In Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, edited by R.B. Resnick, J.M. Levine, & S.D. Teasley. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1991.
Paris, S.G. 1997. "Situated Motivation and Informal Learning." Journal of Museum Education, 22: 22-27.
Schauble, L., Leinhardt, G., & Martin, L. 1997. "A Framework for Organizing a Cumulative Research Agenda in Informal Learning Contexts." Journal of Museum Education, 22: 3-8.
Week 7: School-Museum Connections
Informal learning is identified in part by comparisons to formal learning in schools and in part by the ways in which informal learning contexts support mandated educational agenda. We will consider various ways that formal education is complemented and supplemented by informal learning opportunities, in particular, by museum schools and school field trips.
King, K. 1998. Alternative Educational Systems: A Multi-Case Study in Museum Schools. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University. Chapters 2 and 8.
Paris, S.G., K.M. Yambor and B.W-L. Packard. 1998. "Hands-On Biology: A Museum-Schools-University Partnership for Enhancing Children's Interest and Learning in Science." Elementary School Journal, 98(3): 267-288.
Falk, J.H. and L.D. Dierking. 1997. "Assessing the Long-Term Impact of School Field Trips." Curator, 40(3): 211-218.
Griffin, J., and D. Symington. 1997. "Moving from Task-Oriented to Learning-Oriented Strategies on School Excursions to Museums." Science Education, 81(6): 763-779.
Week 8: Museums, Schools, Communities and Families
We will consider how families visit museums with special attention to the age of the children, the social dynamics and discourse of the adults, the type of museum, the novelty or familiarity of the museum, and the pre and post-visit activities of families.
Do parents provide scaffolded support
for children's learning?
Do parents promote inquiry, curiosity,
and question-asking?
How do family members interact as
they navigate through exhibits?
Borun, M., A. Cleghorn and C. Garfield. 1995. "Family Learning in Museums: A Bibliographic Review." Curator, 38(4): 262-270.
Borun, M., M. Chambers and A. Cleghorn. 1996. "Families are Learning in Science Museums." Curator, 39(2): 123-138.
Diamond, J. 1986. "The Behavior of Family Groups in Science Museums." Curator, 29(2): 139-153.
Crowley, K. and M.A. Callanan. 1998. "Identifying and Supporting Shared Scientific Reasoning in Parent-Child Interactions." Journal of Museum Education, 23: 12-17.
Leichter, H. J., K. Hensel and E. Larsen. 1989. "Families and Museums: Issues and Perspectives." Marriage and Family Review, 13(4): 15-50.
Week 9: Assessment of Learning
Falk, J. 1997. "Testing a Museum Exhibition Design Assumption: The Effect of Explicit Labeling of Exhibit Clusters on Visitor Concept Development." Science Education, 81(6): 679-687.
Week 10: Mediating Museum Experiences
Docents, interpreters, and staff provide a variety of assistance to visitors that range from structured presentations to informal question-answering.
Is assistance sought and appreciated by
visitors?
Do docents and explainers provide
appropriate information and assistance?
What kind of training and supervision
is useful for docents?
Diamond, J., St. John, M., Cleary, B., & Librero, D. (1987). "The Exploratorium's Explainer Program: The Long-Term Impacts on Teenagers of Teaching Science to the Public." Science Education, 71(5): 643-656.
Week 11: Edutainment? The Role of Museums in Packaging Experiences
The challenges of interpretation often reflect the tensions between curators and educators, between archival functions of museums and outreach roles.
Can museums balance their roles of entertainment
and education? Should they even try?
Can museums compete with other community
venues and "destination experiences" such as DisneyWorld?
What are the historical changes in
museums' cultural responsibilities and what will their roles be in the
next 20-50 years?
Roberts. 1997. Chapters 1-3.
M. B., and K.M. Shaw. 1984. "Characteristics of Ideal Museum Exhibits." British Journal of Psychology, 75: 25-36.
Week 12: Visitors' Voices and Stories
We will explore the narrative as a form of reporting and assessing the impact of museum experiences on individuals. We also consider the perspectives of disenfranchised museum visitors and "voices" of gender, race, disability, and poverty as they react to portrayals or lack thereof of their own identities in culture and history. An underlying theme is the "ethics of interpretation".
Why do some people avoid museums?
What is the ethical responsibility
of museum education toward citizens who do not visit museums, who may
be at risk for poor education in schools, or who may be recent immigrants
to the area?
Can narrative frames provide a useful
technique for museum research?
Roberts. 1997. Chapters 4 & 5.
Gable, E. 1996. "Maintaining Boundaries, or 'Mainstreaming' Black History in a White Museum." In Theorizing Museums: Representing Identity and Diversity in a Changing World, edited by S. MacDonald and G. Fyfe. Blackwell Publishers.
Porter, G. 1996. "Seeing Through Solidity: A Feminist Perspective on Museums." In Theorizing Museums, ibid.
Week 13: Visual Literacy and Aesthetic Appreciation
Three fundamental features of object-centered learning are: the nature of viewing and analysis; the quality of the reflection and discourse stimulated by the experience; and the affective reactions to the objects and experience. We will consider various definitions and approaches to aesthetic appreciation, apply them to different kinds of museums, and consider the roles of age and experience in developing aesthetic appreciation.
Can young children and naive viewers appreciate
the quality of an object fully, deeply, and meaningfully?
Is aesthetic experience more than
direct emotion or perception?
How can exhibitions be designed to
promote aesthetic responses?
Adams, E. 1991. "Back to Basics: Aesthetic Experience." Children's Environments Quarterly, 8(2): 19-29.
Danvers, J. 1995. "The Knowing Body: Art as an Integrative System of Knowledge." Journal of Art and Design Education, 14(3): 289-297.
Darby, J.T. and J.S. Catterall. 1994. "The Fourth R: The Arts and Learning." Teachers College Record, 96(2): 299-328.
Fairchild, A.W. 1991. "Describing Aesthetic Experience: Creating a Model." Canadian Journal of Education, 16(3): 267-280.
Hargreaves, D.J. & M.J. Galton. "Aesthetic Learning: Psychological Theory and Educational Practice." In The Arts, Education and Aesthetic Knowing, pp. 124-150. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Perkins, D. N. 1994. The Intelligent Eye: Learning to Think by Looking at Art. Santa Monica: Getty Center for Education in the Arts.
Scott Paris, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.