Family Learning In Museums Research Articles

Translanguaging space through pointing gestures: Multilingual family literacy at a science museum

Translanguaging theory highlights the dynamic use of multiple languages and communication modes by multilingual people in their daily experiences. Museums are informal family learning spaces where multilingual families use languages and other semiotic resources to create learning opportunities for their children. Using a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis and multimodal interaction analysis, I examined how a multilingual family uses translanguaging practices to organize their family learning in museums and the role of pointing gestures as part of their translanguaging repertoires in multilingual family learning. The analysis of two literacy events highlights that a child and his mother translanguaged with various semiotic resources to organize museum performances, joint attention, and telling, and that pointing gestures played a role in constructing a translanguaging space as they organized the two performances. Pointing involved the family in reading signage texts and allowed the mother to translate them for the child. Viewing translation as part of the translanguaging repertoire, this study recognizes the importance of the role of pointing gestures in constructing family learning at museums, enriching children’s schooling and literacy learning in classrooms. I argue that recognizing pointing as a critical component of translanguaging allows educators to develop strategies that leverage families’ unique repertoires to support multilingual students’ language and literacy learning.

Staff-Mediated Learning in Museums: A Social Interaction Perspective

ABSTRACT Educators, docents, and interpreters are considered integral to the learning experiences at many museums. Although there is growing recognition that these staff members need professional development to effectively support visitor learning, there has been little research to describe their work or identify effective facilitation strategies. To address this need, we explored the nature of unstructured staff-facilitated family learning at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, OR, videotaping and inductively analyzing 65 unstructured staff-family interactions. The analysis highlighted the importance of role negotiation between staff and adult family members, particularly during the initiation of interactions, staff and visitor facilitation of family learning, and the introduction of new learning goals by staff members. Aligned with prior research on family learning in museums, adult family members played a critical role in shaping the nature of the interactions and determining the level of involvement of staff members. Findings have important implications for both future research and the professional development of staff.

Defining the Chaperone's Role as Escort, Educator or Parent

ABSTRACT The concept of family learning in museums emphasizes the interaction between related adults and children through the process of free-choice learning. The complexity of family learning in the context of school visits presents new questions for museum staff on the role of chaperones and the extent to which chaperone-led groups might function as family units. Do chaperones operate as escorts, educators, or parents on a museum field trip? This article provides a brief overview of existing field trip and chaperone research findings, raises some critical questions on the role of parents as chaperones, and describes the results from a study on chaperone behavior in the museum. Results from observations of 289 chaperones in a children's museum setting suggest that chaperone behavior is not necessarily influenced by exhibition context, but parents and chaperones do differ in preferred family learning interactions with children in museum exhibitions.

In principle, in practice: museums as learning institutions

1 Foreword 2 Preface 3 Part I: How People Learn in Museums 4 1. Towards an Improved Understanding of Learning from Museums: Filmmaking as Metaphor 5 2. Family Learning in Museums: Perspectives on a Decade of Research 6 3. Students, Teachers and Museums: Toward an Intertwined Learning Circle 7 4. Exhibit Design in Science Museums: Dealing with a Constructivist Dilemma 8 5. Research on Learning from Museums 9 Part II: Engaging Audiences in Meaningful Learning 10 6. Envisioning the Customized Museum: An Agenda to Guide Reflective Practice and Research 11 7. Museums and Cultural Understanding 12 8. Raising the Relevancy Bar at Aquariums and Science Centers 13 9. Challenging Convention and Communicating Controversy: Learning Through Issues-Based Museum Exhibitions 14 Part III: Fostering a Learning-Centered Culture in our Institutions 15 10. New Ways of Doing Business 16 11. Optimizing Learning Opportunities in Museums: The Role of Organizational Culture 17 12. Fostering Effective Free-Choice Learning Institutions: Integrating Theory, Research, Practice and Policymaking 18 13. Meaningful Collaboration 19 Part IV: Investigating Museum Learning in the Next Ten Years 20 14. Understanding the Long-Term Impacts of Museum Experiences 21 15. Investigating Socially Mediated Learning 22 16. Research in Museums: Coping With Complexity 23 17. An Emerging Research Framework for Studying Free-Choice Learning and Schools

Family Learning in Museums: A Bibliographic Review

ABSTRACTThe literature on family behavior in informal science settings consists primarily of observational studies of behavior, focusing on generation and gender roles and learning strategies. Much effort has been expended studying the family visit, building the foundation for further study. A question that remains is: Can we infer learning from observations of learning behavior among family members?The literature in this annotated bibliography addresses issues involved in understanding the family learning process — what a family is, why families visit museums, how they behave in museums, how they learn in museums, and measuring learning.

Family Learning in Museums

This study of family learning in museums focusses on the assumptions of museums about family learning and the family audience. It calls for a widening of the base of theoretical knowledge brought to bear on the topic, and explores the range of that material. Applying that wider base, those multiple viewpoints to the specifics of family workshops presented at the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, certain categories of family learning experience are developed. A framework in which to look at, discuss, and evaluate family learning activities is presented.

Chapter 12: Strategies for Family Learning in Museums

Chapter 12: Strategies for Family Learning in Museums