Museum Visits and Activities for Family Life Enrichment


Book Description

In this one-of-a-kind volume, museum staff and social scientists begin to explore the many facets of the relationship between museums and families. They examine the museum's importance to the family as a source for socialization and learning. At the heart of this exciting book is a concentration on developing programs of experiential learning and knowledge building that will assist families in understanding their history and culture.




Museums and Their Visitors


Book Description

Museums are at a critical moment in their history. In order to ensure survival into the next century, museums and galleries must demonstrate their social relevance and use. This means developing their public service functions through becoming more knowledgeable about the needs of their visitors and more adept at providing enjoyable and worthwhile experiences. Museums and Their Visitors aims to help museums and galleries in this crucial task. It examines the ways in which museums need to develop their communicative functions and, with examples of case-studies, explains how to achieve best practice. The special needs of a number of target audiences including schools, families and people with disabilities are outlined and illustrated by examples of exhibition, education and marketing policies. The book looks in detail at the power of objects to inspire and stimulate and analyses the use of language in museums and galleries. This is the first book to be written to guide museum and gallery staff in the development of provision for their visitors. It will be of interest to students of museum, heritage and leisure and tourism studies, as well as to international museum professionals.




Museum Experience Revisited


Book Description

The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit, updated to incorporate advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years.




The Museum Experience Revisited


Book Description

The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough picture of why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn, and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences.




Museum Learning


Book Description

As museums are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only their cultural, but also their educational and social significance, the means to understand how museum visitors learn becomes ever more important. And yet, learning can be conceptualised and investigated in many ways. Coming to terms with how theories about learning interact with one another and how they relate to ‘evidence-based learning’ can be confusing at best. Museum Learning attempts to make sense of multiple learning theories whilst focusing on a set of core learning topics in museums. Importantly, learning is considered not just as a cognitive characteristic, as some perspectives propose, but also as affective, taking into consideration interests, attitudes, and emotions; and as a social practice situated in cultural contexts. This book draws attention to the development of theory and its practical applications in museum situations such as aquariums, zoos, botanical gardens and historical re-enactment sites, among others. This volume will be of interest to museum studies students, practitioners and researchers working in informal learning contexts, and will help them to reflect on what it means to learn in museums and create more effective environments for learning.




Learning Conversations in Museums


Book Description

Teach. & learn. in non-school settings such as museums is a topic of increasing interest to researchers in psych, educ (sci, art, soc stud), cog sci, and to specialists in museum educ. This book fits nicely into a small but rapidly expanding market.




Group Inquiry at Science Museum Exhibits


Book Description

This brief volume describes an innovative activity that can be used by museum professionals to foster two key inquiry skills—asking a good question and articulating discoveries. A hybrid between a research report and a how-to manual, it describes the development, evaluation, and results of Juicy Question, a collaborative activity designed to foster group inquiry among families or school field trips. The authors demonstrate how the activity changed the behavior of museum visitors and taught them important inquiry skills for use in other informal education settings. Sponsored by the Exploratorium, San Francisco.




Telling Children About the Past


Book Description

This book brings together archeologists, historians, psychologists, and educators from different countries and academic traditions to address the many ways that we tell children about the (distant) past. Knowing the past is fundamentally important for human societies, as well as for individual development. The authors expose many unquestioned assumptions and preformed images in narratives of the past that are routinely presented to children. The contributors both examine the ways in which children come to grips with the past and critically assess the many ways in which contemporary societies and an increasing number of commercial agents construct and use the past.




The Social Work of Museums


Book Description

Museums may not seem at first glance to be engaged in social work. Yet, Lois H. Silverman brings together here relevant visitor studies, trends in international practice, and compelling examples that demonstrate how museums everywhere are using their unique resources to benefit human relationships and, ultimately, to repair the world. In this groundbreaking book, Silverman forges a framework of key social work perspectives to show how museums are evolving a needs-based approach to provide what promises to be universal social service. In partnership with social workers, social agencies, and clients, museums are helping people cope and even thrive in circumstances ranging from personal challenges to social injustices. The Social Work of Museums provides the first integrative survey of this emerging interdisciplinary practice and an essential foundation on which to build for the future. The Social Work of Museums is not only a vital and visionary resource for museum training and practice in the 21st century, but also an invaluable tool for social workers, creative arts therapists, and students seeking to broaden their horizons. It will inspire and empower policymakers, directors, clinicians, and evaluators alike to work together toward museums for the next age.




Family Spaces in Art Museums


Book Description

Families are a critical audience for art museums and museums use many different strategies for reaching families, such as special family days and festivals, workshops, special tours, family backpacks and gallery guides, in-gallery materials or demonstration carts, and specific family galleries. Here is a practical guide based on research that helps art museum educators understand the role and value of spaces designed for families and helps them to create dedicated spaces for intergenerational play and learning. This book features insights, best practices, and lessons learned from years of experience in creating dedicated spaces for families in a wide range of art museums. Through case studies, in-depth stories, and engaging graphics and images this book identifies key issues that museum professionals need to consider when developing family spaces in museums. This book is a how-to guide to creating or updating an interactive family space. Everything you need to know, soup to nuts, from understanding your audience to hiring a designer and opening your doors to the public is here. Each section is situated within groundbreaking visitor research findings and how museum educators have used those findings to better understand the family audience and develop fun, safe, inclusive, spaces that inspire wonder and curiosity, as well as places for meaning-making and family bonding, all in the service of creating loyal and committed museum visitors.