Museum Education Research Articles

Changing the Orientation from Docent Training to Docent Learning

ABSTRACT Volunteer programs, especially those for docents, may often be overlooked as learning opportunities rather than as a strategy for program delivery. Thinking about docents first as learners themselves, and then as partners in creating learning experiences for visitors, can create a meaningful shift in the relationship. By integrating concepts from adult learning, changing the orientation from docent “training” to docent learning, museum educators can better understand how to structure docent programs as more than simply providing a service.

Call and Response: Evolutions in the Field of Museum Education

Call and Response: Evolutions in the Field of Museum Education

Scientific and practical contribution of Ksenia A. Koshkina to the development of the museum of the department of human anatomy at V.I. Razumovsky Saratov State Medical University

The article is dedicated to the Doctor of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Human Anatomy Koshkina Ksenia Alekseevna (1899-1945). The work describes the main stages of her scientific biography, as well as the history of the creation under her leadership and the direct participation of unique anatomical preparations "the corpse of an adult man with reconstituted vessels and nerves of the whole body" and "the corpse of an adult man with reconstituted muscles of the whole body". For 85 years, these drugs have been the central exhibits of the fundamental educational and anatomical museum of the Department of Human Anatomy of Saratov State Medical University named after V. I. Razumovsky.

Evaluation of a community-based, hybrid STEM family engagement program at pre-kindergarten entry

IntroductionThis article investigates an early STEM family engagement program offered during the pre-kindergarten (pre-k) year. Pre-k is an important juncture for community organizations to support children’s STEM engagement and parental involvement in informal STEM learning. We evaluated a program called Teaching Together STEM, which offers a series of museum outreach and family events at schools with the aim of broadening access to early STEM for children experiencing poverty. We replicated program content previously delivered using in-person events but shifted to a hybrid delivery approach that combined two virtual and two in-person events with linguistically diverse families of 3- and 4-year-olds. We evaluated whether attending events improved parent outcomes, such as involvement in STEM activities at home, and child outcomes, such as engagement in a STEM task.MethodsThe analytic sample included 59 families—35 randomly assigned families took part in the treatment and 24 families were assigned to a waitlist control group. Developed in Spanish and English, the informal STEM program was hosted by local children’s museum educators for 21 pre-k classrooms using these components: (a) a series of four family education “funshops;” (b) parent tips and reminders via text message; (c) nine thematically related, take-home STEM extension activity kits; and (d) a family museum field trip for each school, as well as individual family museum passes.ResultsThere were no significant impacts on primary outcomes of parent involvement (effect size [ES] = −0.03) or child STEM engagement/enthusiasm (ES = −0.73). There were improvements in some aspects of parents’ STEM attitudes (e.g., math expectancy ES = 0.58), but other distal parent and child outcomes were not significantly changed.DiscussionThe hybrid delivery approach showed promise in terms of attendance and parent satisfaction but likely was not intensive enough to increase parent involvement. We discuss implications for other community-based family engagement programs focused on broadening participation in informal STEM.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Museum Education in Virtual Environment with 360° Videos

This study aims to evaluate the impact of virtual museum applications incorporating 360° videos on student achievement levels. In this context, a specialized educational environment was designed using 360° videos in a museum education course, and the effects on learning achievements were examined. Additionally, students' perceptions of the developed environment were assessed. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research engaged both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The sample consisted of students majoring in elementary education (N=32) and preschool education (N=29). The quantitative data collection process followed an experimental model with a post-test control group and a randomized design. Qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews reflecting student opinions. The research findings indicate that virtual museum applications positively influence student achievement levels, particularly noting an enhanced interaction with applications incorporating 360° videos. Moreover, qualitative findings support that students perceive such museum education activities positively, indicating a positive impact on the learning process. Based on the results of this study, the following recommendations are proposed for the effective implementation of virtual museum education with 360° videos: Firstly, design virtual museum activities that align with learning objectives and actively engage students. Secondly, it is crucial to instruct students in navigating virtual museum environments using 360° video technology. Additionally, efforts should be made to provide accessible virtual museum experiences for all students. Future research endeavors may delve into a more detailed exploration of the long-term effects of 360° videos in virtual museum education on student learning and engagement. Furthermore, researchers could broaden their perspective by integrating virtual museum education with other teaching formats, such as field trips and hands-on activities.

Cultural Industry and Museum Digitization

Since the Industrial Revolution, people's daily work habits and the cultural industry have been influenced by capitalism. The essence of the cultural sector is that people temporarily forget the pain and boredom of life through entertainment and constantly inject a lot of information and new products into their lives, inducing the public to continually consume and establish a fictional personal image to satisfy the immediate sense of achievement that cannot be obtained from labor. The advent of the Internet era has accelerated the development of the cultural industry, changed how people get information and products, and made the enjoyment of art more related to enriching the perception of others and their understanding of their images. The digitalization of social media and museums has further enhanced the cultural industry, but people are also afraid of escaping reality. Therefore, this paper shows that the digital intelligence of the cultural sector and museums in public education is a new solution that can promote learning, improve cultural inheritance, and encourage creativity.

An Analysis of Xia Nai's Museum Education Thought — A Study Centered on Xia Nai's Diary

Based on a systematic study of "Xia Nai's Diary", it was found that the famous archaeologist Xia Nai developed a systematic museum education philosophy based on his rich museum practice and mentor guidance. He believes that museums have important educational functions, serving as centers for professional knowledge learning, academic research materials, and patriotic sentiments. They should be fully utilized through the comparison of physical objects and literature. Based on this, he deeply realized the close relationship between museums and archaeology, providing valuable experience for guiding museum construction and archaeological development after returning to China.

The editions on historical and natural sciences 1923 year as a source of formation of Ukrainian museum work

The article analyzes the books of 1923 on history and natural history of museum orientation, which are stored in the State Printing Archive of the Book Chamber of Ukraine. In total, 18 books have been identified, which are divided into the following types: scientific (2), popular science (4), popular (1), educational and educational-methodical (8), reference (3). According to the thematic orientation, there are 7 books on history, 5 — on natural science, 3 — on reference, 2 — on museum work, 1 — on book monumentology. The books of G. Levin-Dorsch and G. Kunov, M. Zieber, B. Vipper, M. Yavorsky, A. Winterhalter, M. Levin, B. Komarov, Iv. Trojanovski, O. Nikol'sky, P. Tutkovsky, V. Hnatyuk, F. Schmit are analyzed. The processed editions make it possible to introduce unknown and little-known publications on museum studies of 1923 into scientific circulation, to reveal the "white spots" in the activities of specialists in museum pedagogy.

Enhancing Cognitive Learning: The Role of Map Exhibits in Museum Education

Enhancing Cognitive Learning: The Role of Map Exhibits in Museum Education

Exploring Visiting Artists' Dual Roles and Constraints in Art Educational Programmes

AbstractThis article investigated the multifaceted role of artists in educational programmes, focusing on the challenges they face while balancing their identity as artist‐teacher, artist teacher, artist‐educator, and artist educator. This research was conducted in two phases. Phase one interrogated the effectiveness of artists taking on dual roles as both artists and educators/teachers within international and New Zealand's educational programmes. This phase advocated for artists to embrace their original role as artists without the additional burdens of other roles. Moving to phase two, this research employed the method of document analysis to investigate the historical and current engagement of artists in students' museum education within the context of New Zealand. Historically, artists were considered as art technicians with no direct involvement in art teaching or creation. Although the current LEOTC and ELC programmes in New Zealand value artists' contributions to art education, they do not indicate artists' involvement in these two programmes. Drawing from the findings of phase one and two, the study proposed a novel model that emphasises the integration of three elements: learning environment (art museum), people (artists), and objects (artworks). This model suggested that the combined action of these three elements could lead to a transformation from teacher‐led teaching to student‐centred learning in art education. Such a transition held the potential to enrich students' educational experience through collaborative efforts between artists, museum educators, and schoolteachers, and also enhance students' interdisciplinary learning experiences.

Learning to Share the World: Reckoning With the Logistics of Whiteness in Public Galleries and Museums

This article explores moments of pedagogical disruption as children from an urban school encountered an exhibition titled “We Change the World” at the National Gallery of Victoria. In conversation with radical traditions of anti-colonial scholarship, we elaborate children’s disruptions of the gallery as a space of didactic transfer and common ownership of cultural artifacts and knowledges. We then analyze artworks created by children in the wake of their experiences at the gallery, offering alternative propositions for learning to share the world in ways that break with dominant conceptions of museum education, national collections, and the commons.

Instructing students in history museums: A systematic literature review

History museums offer a wide range of possibilities to engage students in learning about the past, as well as about history. When compared to scholarly research on other types of museums, their educational promises are underexposed. Within these promises, instructional practices and instructional agents such as museum educators and history teachers play an important role. In order to get a view on research methods and findings regarding instruction within history museums, we conducted a systematic literature review. Three scholarly databases were searched, yielding 45 peer-reviewed journal articles. Those have been fully screened, analysed and compared regarding their research design (in terms of research questions, participants involved, and theoretical and methodological approaches) and their research outcomes (in terms of what they revealed about the content, the nature and the approach of instruction in history museums). Review outcomes reveal four different types of research designs, ranging from describing instructional practices to studying beliefs or a combination thereof, or a focus on the relationship between instruction and students’ learning. Within each of these types, great variety was observed regarding the involved participants and the theoretical and methodological approaches. Besides, the review distinguished three areas of research outcomes, namely the goals of instruction, the instructional methods and the relationship between schools and museums before, during and after instruction. Findings within these areas reveal that certain tensions exist, for example between cognitive and emotional-affective learning goals, also related to disciplinary (historical) and civic educational goals. Other tensions were to be distinguished between student- and teacher-centred instructional methods and between beliefs and practices regarding collaborations between schools and museums. Taken together, these research outcomes yield important implications for instructional practices in history museums and for future scholarly research on them.

Teaching sensitive topics: Training history teachers in collaboration with the museum

Discussing sensitive topics, such as slavery, political extremism or religion, in the history classroom presents an interesting challenge for history teachers and museum educators. The goal of this small-scale case study was to evaluate a domain-specific professional-development course for Dutch history teachers that was developed in cooperation with museum educators. This course trains teachers to explore the dynamics of and multiple perspectives on a heritage object by asking historical questions, starting from an overarching main question. We investigated: 1) to what extent trainee and experienced history teachers felt competent in teaching sensitive topics before and after the training; and 2) how three experienced history teachers discussed multiple perspectives in a follow-up lesson after the training. Results showed that teachers reported higher self-efficacy in teaching sensitive topics and that the course offered them practical ideas about how to discuss these kinds of topics in their classrooms. Lesson observations showed that the teachers applied some parts of the design principles demonstrated in the course. This article discusses how using tangible heritage objects could support history educators in negotiating sensitive issues.

A Thousand Concepts and the Participating Body: Concept Play Workshops at Kunsthall 3,14

Participation has become the keyword in museum and gallery education during the past decades. However, the focus on participation might contain neoliberalist tendencies, creating more entertainment and consumerism than art. In this study based on practice-based research, I explore a gallery educational method to mediate contemporary art to primary and high school students inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s process philosophy and new materialist theory–practice. What kind of roles can the method of Concept Play Workshop create for the participating body and how can it challenge neoliberal tendencies in museum and gallery education? In the workshops, children and young people create philosophical concepts with contemporary art, dialogue-based practices and artistic experiments in the exhibition space of Kunsthall 3,14 in Bergen, Norway. I argue that the method can create philosophizing, critical, uncomfortable, resting, dictatorial and protesting bodies. Representational logic becomes challenged, and discomfort and resistance become educational potential. The method creates multiple and overlapping roles for the participating body, shifting the focus towards multiplicities instead of the passive/active binary. Humans are not the only participating bodies, but attention is given to agential matter, contesting human-centeredness. The study is a contribution to the field of post-approaches in gallery and museum education.

Penentuan Percepatan Gravitasi Bumi Menggunakan Bandul Sederhana Di Daerah Kampus UPI

Many people assume that the value of gravitational acceleration always has a fixed value. However, if we look closely, the value of gravitational acceleration always changes in each place. This research aims to compare differences in Earth's gravitational acceleration in various locations. Through this research, researchers can identify the causes of differences in gravity, one of which is differences in height. The method used in this research is a simple pendulum experimental method, with a quantitative approach to collecting data from various places. The results obtained for g in the JICA building on the 5th floor were 9,47 m/s², g in the FIP building on the 10th floor was 9,72 m/s², g in the FPTK 9,59 m/s², and g at the National Museum of Education is 9,72 m/s². Apart from that, it can be found the average magnitude of the gravitational acceleration from these four places is 9,62 m/s². From these results it can be concluded that the magnitude of the Earth’s gravitational acceleration is different in each place. Apart from height, this difference can also occur due to uncertainty in measuring gravity.

Museums Thinking About Early Childhood Education: Present Role and Perspectives

ABSTRACT The relationships between museums and schools have been strengthened in recent years but little previous research has studied the activities that museums offer for children from 0 to 6. The present article analyses the role of early childhood education in museums’ programs in Catalonia. A total of 118 museums and 296 activities have been analyzed and categorized. Results show that the activities that museums offer for early childhood education schools are limited. Guided visits and workshops are the most representative activities, and the majority of them are focused on the age range from 3 to 6. Future studies can deep in the age range from 0 to 3 in order to improve the relationships between early childhood education and museums.

Museum Education in Ukraine After Russia's Major Invasion. How Institutions are Adapting to New Conditions on the Fly

ABSTRACT This article describes the state of museum education in Ukrainian museums after the Russian armed invasion. The research was based on interviews with museum workers from five cities in Ukraine. Museums represent different regions of Ukraine and museums of different directions. The author analyzes what changes have taken place in educational work during the last two years.

Sculpture-Adjacency: A Challenge Facing Sculpture Park Permanent Collections

The number and variety of sculpture parks has grown steadily since the 1960s, when the first entries into this unique typology were founded. As early entrants to the field, sculpture parks founded between 1960 and 1990 have developed ways to stay relevant and attract new audiences by leveraging the asset of their parkland and producing seasonal entertainments and special exhibitions. The enticing combination of these offerings can overshadow permanent collections, the primary reason for their existence. This article explores the challenge sculpture parks face in activating the important asset that is their permanent collection, a problem that has multiple causes. Sculpture parks are not able to rotate their collection, an established museological method for giving the collection new life. This inability produces a static sameness for visitors. The tours that are on offer tend to be in the traditional museum-as-expert mode instead of visitor-centric. Deepening this predicament is the reality that sculpture park curation and programming are sculpture-adjacent, a term I use to signify their vague relationship to the sculptures. Drawing on research from the field of visitor engagement and museum education, this article argues that sculpture parks should turn to visitor-centric programs as the principal method to bring permanent collections to life.

Context and Transformation: Making Visible the Work of the Museum Education Roundtable

Context and Transformation: Making Visible the Work of the Museum Education Roundtable

Expozé v múzeu a galérii: umenie-expresia-zážitok

The aim of the text is to present the main lines of the project, which addresses the topic of gallery and museum pedagogy in a specific context. We present the content of the project, which addresses the topic of museum and gallery education in the context of undergraduate training. We address the theoretical anchoring of the topic in the territorial context and also in comparison with the situation in neighbouring countries. We present the main project aims and objectives in the context of the topic. At the same time, we present the main expected outcomes and benefits of the project in terms of social practice and benefits for the university training of art and gallery educators.