Finding evidence of learning in museum settings

Abstract

There is wide acceptance of the difficulty in effectively evaluating learning even within tightly defined learning contexts such as can commonly be found in school classroom lessons. From a constructivist perspective there is no necessary connection between opportunities to learn and learning. So how can we assess the effectiveness of our exhibits or public programs? In museums, visitors choose their experiences, ideas may not necessarily be met in sequence, opportunities for learning may be fragmentary and unstructured. The informal nature of the setting means that it is even more difficult to determine the specific learning which takes place than in formal settings. Traditional methods for assessing learning are therefore inappropriate. It may be more valuable to look at how visitors are learning rather than at what they have learned. This paper briefly canvases the nature of learning in museums followed by discussion of the effectiveness of two methods, used in a recent research study (Griffin, 1998), to gain some insight into student learning in museums. The first was the use of an instrument which looks for indicators of engagement in learning processes. The second was to draw on student’s own declarations of their learning. The results obtained by the use of these instruments and hence their value for future study will be discussed.