Exhibit Evaluation—A Goal‐Referenced Approach

Abstract

This article is writtcn for those who arc willing t o accept the idea that in the realities of today's world, a major function of public museums (including art galleries, historical societies, visitor centers, etc.) is "education." In other words, public museum displays are designed with the goal and hope that the people who view them will be affected in some useful way. Potentially, at least, public displays of art, science, or artifacts are three-dimensional teachingbearning situations that may affect the knowledge, values, attitudes, or interests of the people who see them-in constructive directions, it is hoped.The educational goal of museums is not t o impart just facts, but also broad overviews, concepts, stimulation of interests and values, new ways of thinking about the world. Museums are vast educational resources with the potential t o serve as significant alternative environments for self-education. For some people, the museum may be more accessible, more personally satisfying, and perhaps more effective at teaching than conventional educational resources. Many people have already found this t o be true, especially scholars and those who have the background and perceptual skills allowing them t o relate the objects on display to meaningful concepts, processes, principles, and/or events with which they are already familiar.But what about the vast majority of visitors who come in off the street? Accumulating evidence suggests that museums are not functioning very well for these people (Lakota, 1976; Screven, 1974b Screven, , 1975 Shettel, 1968 Shettel, , 1976. The average visitor appears t o be better educated than expected and sometimes genuinely interested in mak-271 CURATOR ing sense out of what is o n display (Dixon, 1974;Lakota, 1976; Shettel, 1976, pp. 8-11), but museums are special and rather difficult places in which t o seek a predictable educational impact. Unlike public schools, public museums are informal learning environments where most "learners" are voluntary. In other words, visitors must be reached while moving freely through the halls. They are free to look at particular exhibits, but they are also free to ignore them, to misunderstand, to misread their diagrams, or whatever. Most visitors have little or no idea why the objects or paintings o n display (except for well-publicized glamor items and some technology exhibits) are important. The typical museum audience varies widely in interests and backgrounds, has limited time, is often physically exhausted, and is frequently overwhelmed and confused by too much sensory input. Finally, it is difficult to control the order in which visitors view certain materials whose meaning depends on the order in which they are seen (Screven, 1974b).Given all this, is it reasonable to attempt serious communication of substantive ideas, concepts, and va1ut:s via public exhibits to the average off-the-street visitor? Some would say no, but this article is written on the assumption that the answer is probably yes (Washburn, 1975). Tlicre are important ...

2. Die Öffnung von Museen für ihr Publikum

“…Hier werden die engen Beziehungen zur schulischen Bildungsarbeit deutlich. So betont auch Screven (1976) (Borun & Miller 1980, Bitgood & Gregg 1986, aber auch andere Darstellungselemente wie Dioramen und Bildtafeln (Graf & Treinen 1983) sowie beginnend auch audiovisuelle Medien (Landay & Bridge 1982). Darüber hinaus befasst sich die Evaluation mit den entsprechend des ,discovery learning'-Modells nun häufiger auftretenden ‚in-teraktiv' konzipierten Ausstellungselementen wie beispielsweise Druckknopfexperimente oder mechanische interaktive Geräte (Eason & Linn 1976, Feher & Rice 1985, Kerr 1986).…”

“…So etabliert sich das von Screven (1976) eingeführte und später weiterentwickelte Modell einer die verschiedenen Phasen der Ausstellungsentwicklung begleitenden Publikumsforschung, von Vorabevaluation zu Beginn der Planungsphase über Formative Evaluation während der Entwicklung hin zu Verbesserungs-und Summativer Evaluation nach Eröffnung einer Ausstellung (Screven 1990 Falk et al 1998). Sie erlauben es, einen Sachverhalt vorrangig mit den Worten und aus der Perspektive des Publikums zu beleuchten (vgl.…”

Évolution des conceptions d'élèves de dix ans sur la génétique à la suite d'activités scolaires incluant une visite scolaire à la Cité des Enfants

“…Près de la moitié de ces visiteurs sont des classes d'élèves accompagnés par leur enseignant (Guichard, communication personnelle). Des travaux ont déjà été réalisés sur la fonction éducative des musées scientifiques, et sur leurvisite par des publicsscolaires (Shettel, 1968(Shettel, ,1973Screven, 1976Screven, ,1984Miles, 1985Miles, , 1988Gottesdiener, 1987 ;Samson & Schiele, 1989). Ces travaux se sont multipliés et renouvelés durant ces dernières années (Allard & Boucher, 1991 ;Lefebvre, 1994), notamment en s'articulant plus sur des recherches en didactique des disciplines scientifiques (Clément et al, 1992 ;Clément, 1993;Giordan et al, 1993Giordan et al, , 1994Guichard, 1989Guichard, , 1990Guichard, , 1992Guichard, , 1994Guichard, , 1995.…”

Uloga Interpretacije Kulturnog Nasleđa U Međuzavisnosti Sa Prezentacijom Bitna Za Arhitektonsko Projektovanje

“…The influence of the research in US firstly spread to the UK during the 1960s, and then to the other European countries in the 1970s and 1980s, when the number of visitor study sharply increased. Shettel investigated the effectiveness of exhibition for the target group, by measuring knowledge before and after a visit [6]This method has been improved by Scraven [7]. Alt was briefing Milton contemplations and he suggested techniques for modern audio-visual exhibition of Natural History in the British Museum in 1979 (Improving Audio Visual Presentation) [8].…”