Understanding the Effects of ‘Behind‐the‐Scenes’ Tours on Visitor Understanding of Collections and Research

Abstract

Collections can be a ‘mystery’ to many museum visitors, which makes investing in behind‐the‐scenes tours an opportunity for increasing awareness of the role museums play in scientific research. Drawing on the theories of contextual learning, situated learning, and legitimate peripheral participation, we offer insights from an exploratory study that investigated the potential effectiveness and practicalities of using behind‐the‐scenes tours to improve visitor understandings of museum research. This forum paper reports on emerging results from visitor questionnaires and staff interviews across six museums where we explored the experience offered by behind‐the‐scenes tours as an effective learning environment. These results suggest that behind the scenes tours remain under‐researched and highlight the need for further investigation into the value of this visitor experience.

The Intertwined Past, Present, and Future of Local Natural History Museum and Amateur Naturalism in Tampere, Finland

“…On occasions such as the Night of the Museums, the visitors may ask Doctor Nature's help in identifying species or participate in light‐trapping of insects, organized together with the local entomologists. During autumn holidays the museum has offered children a popular chance to visit behind the scenes of the NHM and see the insect collections (see Gallimore and Wilkinson, 2019). The museum is a member of a nature schools’ network in Finland, and the curator has joined a regional environmental education network, providing the museum visibility and understanding how it can best serve environmental education.…”