The development of informal learning and museum pedagogy in museums

Abstract

This paper presents an outline of the history and the current orientation of informal learning in museums, museum pedagogy. This is the result of a lengthy process over the last two centuries, which became particularly intensive from the 1960s, in which museums looked for deeper ways to communicate with visitors, starting from basic presentation activity with occasional spoken commentaries. From this, modern museums have developed specialised ways of working with different age groups of visitors, which can be referred to collectively as museum pedagogy and museum education. These activities not only strengthen the experience of museum exhibits and exhibitions but also allow information to be communicated using collection items in a playful way, through informal learning. Museums' current focus on communication and working with visitors owes much to the long development of heritage institutions, the stabilisation of their position in cultural and social systems, in cultural policy and strategy and the overall significance of the collections of museums and galleries for our modern knowledge societies. The aim of this paper is to outline the historical development and direction of museums' educational activities to the present.