Are We on the Same Page? Family and Museum Staff Perceptions of Engagement and Learning

Brown, Robert; Jeanneret, Neryl; Andersen, Jennifer

doi:10.1080/10645578.2019.1668235

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These recollections and the learning that corresponds with them are influenced by personal, physical and social contexts, and connected to events that occur before and after the visit (Falk & Dierking, 2016; Hooper‐Greenhill & Moussouri, 2006). The experiential learning that takes place in children’s museum programs, occurs through exploration and allows for deep engagement and discovery (Brown et al., 2019; Piscitelli & Penfold, 2015). In addition, the interactions between children and curators and teachers, between children and technology, and between children and the physical learning space, are central to learning experiences (Andre et al., 2017; Lemon & Garvis, 2014).…”

Section: Museums Are Places Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEARN: Essential Elements of Museum Education Programs for Young Children

Eadie¹,

Young²,

Suda³

et al. 2021

Curator The Museum Journal

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Museums provide rich multimodal learning opportunities and long‐lasting memories for children and teachers who participate in museum excursions and outreach programs. Museum programs for preschool children embed hands‐on opportunities to engage children with new and diverse artefacts. Interactions in museum settings provide opportunities for adults and children to collaborate in learning. Our aim in this project was to explore the elements of museum programs that prove essential in engaging young children in museum education programs. Five museum presenters and 14 early childhood groups (14 teachers and 296 children) participated in the research project. Data collection included audio recordings of museum presentations, observations of child‐teacher interactions, multiliteracy observations, teacher interviews, and written reflections from the museum presenters. Coding across all datasets contributed to the five main themes in the findings, which we detail using the acronym LEARN: Learning artefacts; Embodied teaching and learning; Asking questions; Repetition: and Narrative. Multiple elements of museum education programs influence learning opportunities for young children. Both structural elements (e.g. designing a core narrative around concepts, or time for children’s individual queries during the program and hands‐on explorations with museum artefacts) and learning interactions (e.g. conversations where children and adults collaborate) contribute to engaging museum education programs for young children.

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Section: Museums Are Places Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEARN: Essential Elements of Museum Education Programs for Young Children

Eadie¹,

Young²,

Suda³

et al. 2021

Curator The Museum Journal

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“…If visitors feel uncomfortable, unsafe or unwelcomed, they will likely not engage with exhibits (Barriault and Pearson, 2010) and learning can become challenging because people's basic needs are not being met (Maslow, 1943). The importance of Comfort for facilitator behaviours is supported by previous research that demonstrated that for families, a positive experience with facilitators was associated with a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment (Brown et al, 2019). By using strategies in the Comfort Facilitation Dimension, we argue that facilitators are showing respect and care for their visitors.…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The Information Facilitation Dimension describes facilitator behaviours that give visitors more information about the science content of the exhibit, which it can be argued is the typical and expected behaviour of facilitators in science centres and museums (King and Tran, 2017). Delivery and timing are important aspects of the Information Dimension because facilitators should be able to provide information in a way that is not too didactic or expository, and they should also be able to identify when would be the best moment to interact with visitors who are engaging with an exhibit (Brown et al, 2019). Experienced facilitators can determine the best way to engage with each visitor, as this is learned with practice.…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitators Improve the Learning Experience of Visitors to a Science Centre

et al. 2021

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We studied how interactions with interpretative science centre staff impacts the learning behaviours and engagement levels of visitors who engage with exhibits at Science North (Sudbury, Canada). This study uses the Visitor-Based Learning Framework. The tool consists of seven discrete learning-associated behaviours that visitors show when engaging with exhibits, which are grouped into three categories of engagement: Initiation, Transition, and Breakthrough. These categories reflect increasing levels of engagement and depth of the learning experience. We studied forty-seven Science North exhibits, and 4,835 visitors to analyse the impact of unstructured facilitation in a naturalistic setting. We compared visitor Engagement Levels with and without a facilitator present. We determined that the presence of staff has a statistically significant impact on the percentage of visitors that engage in Breakthrough behaviours. When a facilitator is present, more visitors reach the Breakthrough Level of Engagement (p < 0.001). In the second phase of the study, we explored what facilitators do and say through thematic analysis to uncover common patterns of facilitator actions and comments. Our findings showed that facilitators employed strategies and methods that can be grouped in four categories or Facilitation Dimensions: Comfort, Information, Reflection, and Exhibit Use. These dimensions encompass different strategies and techniques of facilitation, that are used in a variety of situations and sequences. Our study goes beyond anecdotal evidence to show that staff-visitor interactions have a positive impact on visitor engagement with exhibits and therefore, potentially on visitor learning from exhibits. Our findings can be used to inform not only training programs but also managerial decisions and considerations around resource allocation. We suggest that facilitators are a fundamental asset for institutions that prioritize visitor engagement, one that should be given top priority when considering areas for investing.

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“…If visitors feel uncomfortable, unsafe or unwelcomed, they will likely not engage with exhibits and learning can become challenging because people's basic needs are not being met (Maslow, 1943). The importance of Comfort for facilitator behaviours is supported by previous research that demonstrated that for families, a positive experience with facilitators was associated with a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment (Brown et al, 2019). By using strategies in the Comfort Facilitation Dimension, we argue that facilitators are showing respect and care for their visitors.…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 95%

Learning Science in Out-of-School Settings

2022

Frontiers Research Topics

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Frontiers is more than just an open-access publisher of scholarly articles: it is a pioneering approach to the world of academia, radically improving the way scholarly research is managed. The grand vision of Frontiers is a world where all people have an equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge. Frontiers provides immediate and permanent online open access to all its publications, but this alone is not enough to realize our grand goals. Frontiers Journal SeriesThe Frontiers Journal Series is a multi-tier and interdisciplinary set of open-access, online journals, promising a paradigm shift from the current review, selection and dissemination processes in academic publishing. All Frontiers journals are driven by researchers for researchers; therefore, they constitute a service to the scholarly community. At the same time, the Frontiers Journal Series operates on a revolutionary invention, the tiered publishing system, initially addressing specific communities of scholars, and gradually climbing up to broader public understanding, thus serving the interests of the lay society, too. Dedication to QualityEach Frontiers article is a landmark of the highest quality, thanks to genuinely collaborative interactions between authors and review editors, who include some of the world's best academicians. Research must be certified by peers before entering a stream of knowledge that may eventually reach the public -and shape society; therefore, Frontiers only applies the most rigorous and unbiased reviews. Frontiers revolutionizes research publishing by freely delivering the most outstanding research, evaluated with no bias from both the academic and social point of view. By applying the most advanced information technologies, Frontiers is catapulting scholarly publishing into a new generation.

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Are We on the Same Page? Family and Museum Staff Perceptions of Engagement and Learning

Cited by 15 publications

References 19 publications

LEARN: Essential Elements of Museum Education Programs for Young Children

LEARN: Essential Elements of Museum Education Programs for Young Children

Facilitators Improve the Learning Experience of Visitors to a Science Centre

Learning Science in Out-of-School Settings

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