Chinese Family Groups' Museum Visit Motivations: A Comparative Study of Beijing and Vancouver

This comparative study explored Chinese family groups' dominant visit motivations in science museums and aquariums in order to understand the perceptions of these audiences, who are an under‐represented cultural demographic in the literature. In this study, 503 Chinese participants—131 in the China Science and Technology Museum, Beijing; 127 in the Beijing Aquarium, Beijing; 136 in Science World British Columbia, Vancouver; and 109 in the Vancouver Aquarium, Vancouver—completed a Family Group Visit Motivation Questionnaire. The results report four dominant visit motivations for these Chinese family groups. Significant differences in a fifth motivation, social interaction, were detected in comparing the Beijing and Vancouver Chinese family samples. Also, Chinese family groups were more likely to perceive science museums to be settings that can satisfy their educational and personal interest needs, compared to aquariums. This study provides insights for science museums and aquarium practitioners to better understand this audience demographic.     

Leisure—A function of museums? The Taiwan perspective

The main factor preventing non-visitors from visiting museums is ‘lack of interest’. But the causes of this ‘lack of interest’ are different in Taiwan than in western countries. Taiwanese non-visitors on low incomes are deterred by the strong association of museums with education. They want an experience that will be relaxing, enjoyable and pleasurable, and one which will not require any effort. They do not perceive museums as providing this. Non-visitors want museums to function more obviously as leisure venues that the whole family can actively enjoy. They say museums need to promote themselves as places for exploration and entertainment, as well as for education and learning. If museums wish to attract low-income non-visitors, they must consider how the needs of the non-visiting public can be met.     

Methods for studying family visitors in art museums: A cross-disciplinary review of current research

This paper examines current trends in family studies research, details the methodological and topical perspectives that are emerging, and reflects on how these findings could be integrated to provide a more coherent approach to researching the leisure, learning and recreational aspects of family visitors to art museums. Research findings from disciplines such as sociology, ethnography, education, design and marketing are of interest to the field of visitor studies, and this paper contributes to the wider research agenda by providing an overview of family research methods from a range of other disciplines, as well as those used within visitor studies.Over the last decade, there has been a growth of research in family learning in science museums, leading to an emerging disciplinary matrix, whilst many aspects of family visits to art museums remain relatively unexplored. The paper discusses the problems of gathering meaningful data from adults and children in family groups, and concludes by suggesting that a challenge for art museums is to learn from what is happening in other areas of cultural research into families, and to develop a framework for research which builds on the methodological strengths and practical experience of robust studies.     

One Hundred Strong: A Colloquium on Transforming Natural History Museums in the Twenty‐first Century

In February 2012, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) convened 100 colleagues from 43 organizations to initiate a collaborative learning research agenda focused on examining important areas for innovation to better serve twenty‐first‐century audiences. The conference organizers anticipated that scientists, educators, exhibit professionals, and other members of the natural history community would identify and prioritize research questions about what, how, why, when, and where people learn about natural history. We prepared to engage in a conversation about how natural history museums could change what they do. The participants' overwhelming passion for their work, and for natural history museums and their transformative potential for society, quickly turned the conversation toward how natural history museums should change what they are. The result was an emergent learning research agenda situated within a broader vision for natural history museums.     

A Research Vision for Museums

Abstract The museum family in America is in danger, and perhaps other museum families across the globe are, as well. Management has failed our mission by focusing on outputs like attendance numbers, and audience researchers have failed management by not shedding light on the connections between the pleasure of learning and attendance—or, if you will, between individual gains and a museum’s public value. This research vision for museums looks at how you can make that connection and save museums in their hour of need.     

“A Large Object with a Small Museum”: A Narrative Analysis of Tlotlo's Experience of an Astronomy Science Center

Abstract This paper presents a narrative analysis of an elementary school student's view of his visit to an astronomy science center in South Africa. We illustrate the power of narrative in illuminating the importance of the student's perspective in understanding the conditions for learning in a museum setting. Using principles of narrative presentation, the paper describes Tlotlo's thinking throughout his participation in a school visit to the visitors' center at a radio telescope. The paper discusses six features of the visit: student misconceptions; inadequate preparation and followup; memories and imaginings; enjoyment; discussing the visit afterwards; and socioeconomic constraints on visits. These features are examined within the context of a developing country: both confirming previous research on school visits and providing new insights into how such visits can be interpreted. The significance of narrative analysis for science center educators is discussed and suggested as appropriate for current research in museums.     

An Identity‐Centered Approach to Understanding Museum Learning

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‐specific motivational categories might help to explain the long‐term learning impacts of a museum visit.     

Developing Family-Friendly Exhibits

How can museums encourage active family learning? Four Philadelphia area science institutions—The Franklin Institute Science Museum, the New Jersey State Aquarium, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Philadelphia Zoo—have investigated the answer to this question as part of the PISEC (Philadelphia-Camden Informal Science Education Collaborative) Family Learning Project. PISEC is conducting research and exhibit development aimed at increasing understanding of family learning in science museums and identifying the characteristics of successful family learning exhibits. The PISEC project has three phases, two of which have been completed: (1) a research study to establish behavioral indicators for family learning; (2) the development and evaluation of four exhibit enhancements aimed at achieving family learning goals; (3) a research study of the impact of the four enhanced exhibits. This article will describe the results of formative evaluation conducted during Phase 2 of the project. “Family learning components,” or exhibit enhancements, designed to help adults and children learn together, were developed, field-tested, revised, and installed at each of the four museums. PISEC has identified seven characteristics of successful family learning exhibits: multi-sided, multi-user, accessible, multi-outcome, multi-modal, readable, and relevant. The four PISEC family learning components, embodying these characteristics, appear to have increased active family learning.     

Communicative Functions of the Museum Lobby

In a time with a heightened focus on how museum architecture and exhibition design shapes the museum visit, the entrance space of museums, the museum lobby, is remarkably absent from the museum literature and research. Still, the museum lobby is the first encounter visitors have with the museum and the last impression that they take home and share with others. This article analyzes museum lobbies as communication spaces in order to identify the different functions afforded by such spaces. In an explorative study of five Danish museum lobbies, we offer a preliminary categorization of these functions that can be compared at a general level. Concrete examples will be used to discuss general issues such as the adaptive borders of lobby spaces and the counteracting effects of design. We suggest that the preliminary categorization provided here can form a foundation for further studies resulting in practical suggestions for design improvements.     

基于观众对话的博物馆学习研究新视角——来自苏·艾伦研究成果的启发

观众在博物馆中如何学习、学习效果如何评量等问题长期受到研究者的关注。观众对话作为参观学习的体现,是探究博物馆学习过程的重要材料。基于此,苏·艾伦采用社会文化视角,透过参观过程中的观众对话寻找学习的证据。本文主要目的是介绍该研究的研究问题、研究发现、方法论框架、数据收集与分析等方面的内容,以期为国内博物馆观众研究领域提供一种新的视角。     

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.     

A Conversation on Object‐Centered Learning in Art Museums

Danielle Rice and Philip Yenawine are veteran art museum educators who have wrestled for decades with the thorny issues involved in teaching about and learning from art objects in the museum setting. While there is general agreement within art museums today that the object should be the focus of educational practice, debate continues as to the most effective processes for facilitating learning. Gallery teaching is one of the most contested arenas, with much of the disagreement centering on the place of information in teaching beginning viewers. In art museums, the issue of what and how to teach is complicated by the fact that many people, including artists, museum professionals, psychologists and educators consider art primarily as something to be enjoyed, and they posit this enjoyment in direct opposition to learning about art. Partly because of this, the function of art museum education and gallery‐based instruction is still evolving.     

Beyond Learning: Exploring Visitors' Perceptions of the Value and Benefits of Museum Experiences

Abstract This paper explores the beneficial outcomes that visitors seek and obtain from a museum visit, in terms that are not related to learning outcomes. It uses a deductive qualitative approach to investigate the meaning and value of a museum visit from the visitors' perspective. Three different levels of the meaning of the experience are considered: the attributes of the setting that visitors value; the experiences they engage in; and the benefits they derive. The findings confirm the importance of the “satisfying experiences” framework for understanding visitor experiences in museums, and extend this understanding in relation to the beneficial outcomes these experiences produce. The study also highlights the importance of “restoration” as an outcome of a museum visit. It is argued that the concept of the museum as a restorative environment, which enables visitors to relax and recover from the stresses of life, is worthy of further research attention. These insights will enable museum practitioners to better understand and meet their visitors' multiple needs and expectations.     

Competing Agendas: Young Children's Museum Field Trips

Abstract Visitors to museum settings have agendas that encompass a wide variety of missions. Agendas are known to directly influence visitor behavior and learning. Numerous agendas are at play during a visit to a museum. We suggest that in a museum‐based learning experience, children's agendas are often overlooked, and are at times in competition with the accompanying adult's agendas. This paper describes and qualitatively analyzes three episodes of competing agendas that occurred on young children's field trips to museums in Brisbane, Australia. The aim is to elucidate the kinds of tensions over agendas that can arise in the experience of young museum‐goers. Additionally, we hope to alert museum practitioners to the importance of considering children's agendas, with the aim of improving their museum experience. Suggestions are also made for ways in which educators can address children's agendas during museum visits in order to maximize learning outcomes.     

Crafting Museum Experiences in Light of Research on Learning: Implications of the National Research Council’s Report on Informal Science Education

Abstract In this article, the editors of the recent National Research Council report Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits discuss the report’s implications for museum professionals. The report is a synthesis of some 2,000 studies and evaluations of learning in non‐school settings such as museums. Here we focus on three specific topics discussed in the full report, which we see as particularly important for museum professionals. These are: a framework for developing and studying science learning experiences; cultural diversity as an integral resource for learning; and assessment of learning. Many museums include “learning” among their goals and many researchers concern themselves with how museums and other settings can be organized to support learning. Yet this wealth of research is rarely brought into focus and offered as guidance to the museum community.     

An Analysis of Visitor Circulation: Movement Patterns and the General Value Principle

Abstract How visitors circulate through museums determines what they will see, where they will focus their attention, and, ultimately, what they will learn and experience. Unfortunately, the consistency of these movement patterns is not readily apparent. This article reviews the literature on visitor circulation in light of the general value principle which predicts choice behavior as a ratio of perceived experience outcome (benefits) divided by perceived costs (time, effort, and so on). Although this principle at first appears obvious, its implications may be more profound.     

学习理论之于博物馆教育实践的意义——《博物馆学习:作为促进工具的理论与研究》书评

20世纪80年代,教育领域“由教到学”的哲学转向延伸至博物馆领域。随着关于博物馆学习的讨论日益丰富,观众在博物馆中的行为始终无法绕开学习这一因素成为学界共识。《博物馆学习:作为促进工具的理论与研究》一书从理论出发,对相关的学习理论进行阐述,将理论研究和博物馆实践相结合,试图架起研究人员和博物馆专业工作人员之间的桥梁,从心理学、社会学、 哲学、人类学等视角开展跨学科研究。本书资料丰富,理论介绍全面,可为我国开展博物馆教育和学习提供较为全面的理论指南和实践指导,如博物馆分众类别研究和学习环境如何分众化的启示,一定程度上也有助于使我们认识到理论的重要性,开展更多聚焦事物本质的研究。     

中加场馆开展家庭教育的比较研究——基于场馆教育者的视角

场馆是家庭开展教育活动的重要场域,而家庭也被列为场馆教育的核心面向。针对场馆究竟如何开展家庭教育的问题,本研究从场馆教育者的专业视角出发,考察中国和加拿大场馆开展家庭教育的情况,寻求跨文化的经验借鉴。通过对场馆的教育理解和期待、家庭与场馆的教育动机以及家庭行为与场馆支持三个方面的深度比较,研究显示中加场馆开展家庭教育的特点各有侧重。无论优势,还是缺陷,都有共识和差异。在取长补短的意义上,我国场馆和家庭分别获得三点启示。     

Museum Visits,Education, and Topic Interest

This paper compares two perspectives on why individuals visit museums using data from a telephone survey conducted in Minnesota in 1996. One perspective holds that individuals visit museums because of interest in the materials exhibited. Another holds that visits to museums are markers of social status, influenced more by social class variables, such as educational attainment. Information from the survey allows for construction of a set of interest indices, which reflect the respondents' levels of interest in various museum topics. The survey data also allow the estimation of regression models that test the relative roles of interest versus respondents' educational attainment as indicators of their likelihood of visiting any one of five different types of museums. Results show that topic interest is a stronger predictor than educational attainment. The implications for attracting museum visitors are discussed.