Kate McWatters
Survey of Art Education Literature
4.25.12
Literature Review
In contemporary research about museum education, it seems as though
understanding a visitor’s learning process is integral to assessing the value of their
museum experience. Some researchers argue that learning should be the focus and
overall goal of museums. Often, the learning that occurs throughout a museum visit is
directly related and affected by the visitor’s individual identity and experiences.
According to recent research on museum education the meaning the visitor develops in
the museum is both contextual and constructivist. The first part of this literature review
discusses the research about learning as the museum’s primary focus. The second part
considers the literature about the visitor’s learning experience. The final section
discusses research about museums as agents of social change in diverse contemporary
society.
Learning as the Museum’s Primary Focus
According to Jeffrey P. Bonner and Frank C. Baker, a museum’s primary
responsibility is to provide visitors with experiences rich in exploration and learning.
Bonner’s personal experience working with collaborative museum-college programs as a
student intern, anthropology professor, and museum administrator informed his work on
museum education in he 1980’s. Bonner compares the museum learning experience to
that of the formal classroom (1985). In his theoretical article about museum education in
the classroom and learning in the museum, Bonner argues that the museum’s focus is
exhibition and the caretaking of its collections (p. 288). However, he goes on to suggest
that the museum’s focus should shift from the exhibits to visitor learning. He proposes
that a stronger relationship be formulated between classroom and museum learning—
particularly at the university level.
Bonner suggests that a stronger relationship might be formed if classroom
educators use museums as teaching resources by integrating museum visits and guest
speakers into their curriculums. Additionally museums might occasionally make use of
their exhibit space as classroom space to enhance site- specific learning. Bonner also
focuses on the importance of providing students with museum internship opportunities
for hands-on, practical experience (p. 290).
While Bonner suggests that museum education reflect classroom learning, curator
Frank C. Baker describes museums as unique educational tools that emphasize visual
thought and that could potentially supplements material learned in the classroom (2008).
He defines museums as unique learning environments that are the “pioneers in the field
of education” where “the majority of the population of our large cities acquire their only
knowledge of the great world about them by visits to museums, art galleries, and
zoological gardens” (p. 176). Museums provide visitors with site-specific learning
experiences that cater to the individual’s inclination to gather large amounts of
information visually. Baker states “we acquire much more information through the eye
than through any other sense organ of the body” (p. 175). Museums are viewed as
institutions capable of providing unique, visually-oriented learning experiences that are
meaningful to an individual’s overall education.
Additionally, Baker asserts that the “museum is also of value in reinforcing
instruction in the universities and other higher institutions of learning” and provides value
in the “coordination of all the material which may have been seen in the classroom only
as isolated parts of the whole subject” (p.176). Museums act as learning-based
institutions in that they are able to provide a real-life context to material discussed in the
classroom. Baker’s arguments are based on his experience as a natural history curator at
the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the University of Illinois.
The Visitor’s Learning Experience
Educators and museum theorists Lynn Dierking, John Falk, and George Hein
have asserted that visitors’ learning experiences are dependent on their individual
contexts and backgrounds. The learning that occurs in museums is constructed by
individual response to exhibited material. Dierking and Falk’s first book on museum
education, The Museum Experience (1992), strives to define what factors lend to a
valuable museum visit.
In their second book about museum education, Learning in the Museum (2000)
Dierking and Falk explore the key factors that influence learning that should be taken into
consideration when designing museum exhibits and programs. Dierking and Falk expand
on their “interactive experience model” of learning described in The Museum Experience
and delve into what they call, the “contextual mode of learning” (p.10). The contextual
mode acts as an extension of the interactive model, the main difference being its
definitive focus on the learning process.
Based on various visitor case studies, professional experience, and museum
theory, Dierking and Falk (2000) explain that learning “is not some abstract experience
that can be isolated in a test tube or laboratory but an organic, integrated experience that
happens in the real world. The contextual model involves three overlapping contexts: the
personal, the sociocultural, and the physical. Learning is the process/product of the
interaction between these three contexts” ( p. 10). Dierking and Falk assert that
understanding this process is an essential component in creating a truly educational
museum experience for visitors.
Falk further expanded on his previous work with Dierking in his book Identity
and the Museum Visitor Experience (2009). Falk defines a meaningful museum visit as a
visit that builds on a direct relationship with the construct of a visitor’s identity. Falk
argues that this is preferable to a “complex mix of multiple factors” (p. 9). His updated
model postulates “that a museum visit itself is strongly shaped by the expectations an
individual develops prior to a visit, based upon his or her own identity-related need, as
well as the expectations and views of the larger socio-cultural context” (p. 10).
The “visitor experience model” outlines what can and cannot be learned about
museums and their visitors. Falk (2009) emphasizes that the museum visitor experience
“is an ephemeral and constructed relationship that uniquely occurs each time a visitor
interacts with a museum” (p. 158). Also essential to the model is the importance of
understanding a visitor’s individual motivation for visiting museums. Falk breaks these
motivations into five categories: explorer, facilitator, experience seeker,
professional/hobbyist, and recharger.
In the segment of the book focused on the practical application of Falk’s model,
Falk cites Zahava Doering’s assertion that “rather than communicating new information,
the primary impact of visiting a museum exhibition is to confirm, reinforce, and extend
the visitor’s existing beliefs” (As cited in Falk, 2009).
While Dierking and Falk explore the visitor learning experience from the
perspective of the visitor, educator/ theorist George Hein (1998) discusses the museum’s
role in promoting visitor learning in his book, Learning in the Museum. Hein includes a
history of museum education, educational theory, and visitor studies. Perhaps most
significantly is his description of the Constructivist Museum.
Hein describes the constructivist museum as one that recognizes meaning to be
created by visitors (p. 156). Hein poses three basic questions he deems essential to be
addressed for a constructivist agenda include: What is done to acknowledge that
knowledge is constructed in the mind of the learner? How is learning itself made active?
What is done to engage the visitor? How is the situation designed to make it accessiblephysically, socially, and intellectually- to the visitor (156)? The constructivist museum
seems to place visitor learning as one of the most important institutional features.
According to Hein, learning should occur in all aspects of the visitor experience, resulting
in the creation of meaning.
Looking at artwork in the museum
Visual literacy
Aestetic education
Museum literacy
Making connections/transfer
Cognitive abilities
How? Museum Education strategies
Vts
Postmodern principles
Constructivist knowledge
Curriculum
Museums and their Relation to Contemporary Society
Anthropologists and educators Nelson Graburn and Richard Sandell, and the
participants in the 1992 Association of Art Museum Directors’ “Different Voices”
symposium all argue that museums are both reflectors of contemporary society and
potential agents of social change. Similar to Falk, educator and curator Nelson Graburn
finds identity and context to be essential in creating a valuable museum learning
experience (1977). However, Graburn’s discussion of identity is a more anthropological,
societal discussion rather than Falk’s more individual-based theory. Graburn’s article
explores the functions of the modern museum through a complete socio-cultural context
(1977). He explains that for visitors, the museum experience is based on a combination of
prior knowledge and new, original thought. As visitors, “we do not construct meaning
from basic axioms in the manner of the scientist but out of selected parts and associations
from our total life histories” (p. 2). Additionally Graburn claims that museums should
create a free, social environment to allow for a truly enriching experience. This includes
“social space, seating areas, and lawns and allow[ing] for heightened and shared social
experience” (p. 3).
Graburn identifies a major challenge for museums as they attempt “to be all
things to all people” (p. 4). Each visitor has a personal motivation for visiting the
museum, and it is particularly challenging for museum professionals to address the needs
of so many diverse public interests. In a diverse society, museums might strive to create
experiences and environments that encourage individual thinking and exploration,
whatever that may be to the individual visitor.
An edited collection about museums and inequality also explores museums’ role
in society, and includes the work of many contributors--- practitioners, academics, and
commentators—writing from diverse perspectives. Edited by anthropologist and
educator Richard Sandell, this 2002 publication addresses the overlying question of,
“What role can museums realistically play in tackling the causes and ameliorating the
symptoms of social inequality?” (Sandell, p. xvii). Another prevalent theme Sandell
addresses in his introduction to the volume is that “museums are fundamentally social
institutions that influence and respond to the changing characteristics and concerns of
society” (Sandell, p. xviii).
The “Museums and Society: Issues and Perspectives” section, written by Sandell,
defines museums to be major potential influences on contemporary society (p. 3). The
second section of the book, “Strategies for Inclusion,” contains chapters that describe
museums’ approaches to inclusion and their position as active institutions and agents of
social change. For example, in the chapter entitled “The National Museums of Kenya and
Social Responsibility: Working with Street Children,” written by museum educator
Fredrick Karanja Mirara, addresses the museums’ role in society. Mirara describes
museums as “cultural institutions [that] have a social responsibility to the communities in
which they are located” and that “this requires us to understand community needs and be
responsive to social issues” (Mirara, p. 175).
Positively interacting with a diverse society is also discussed throughout the 2part “Different Voices” symposium presented by the Association of Art Museum
Directors (Different Voices 1992). The program sponsors hoped to “articulate, for the
benefit of membership, current ideas and process in art historical scholarship an options
for institutional engagement in a clearly more ethnically diverse and culturally
challenging age” (p. 5). They asked different scholars to present their work. The
proceedings were published by the Association.
Each contributor tackles a different outlook on museums and their role in society.
One theme that seems to recur is that of communication and audience awareness. Amalia
Mesa-Bains, a museum educator, asserts that “differences in time and space, physicality,
language, and communication affect the way people enter our institutions, the way they
are received in our institutions, and the way in which they learn in our institutions” (p.
97). It seems as though most of the symposium participants agreed that understanding
diverse populations is essential to creating a valuable museum experience. After
understanding its wide range of visitors, museums must strive to reflect the diverse needs
and interests of contemporary society.
Multicultural education
Visual culture
Next Steps
To build upon this research in the future, I would potentially like to further research the
constructivist museum and its relation to visual thinking strategies. It seems as though the
most valuable learning occurs as a result of the individual’s social context, prior
knowledge, and motivations.
Works Cited
Andrei, M., and Genoways, H., Eds. (2008). Museum origins. Walnut Creek,
CA: Left Coast Press.
Bonner, J. (1985). Museums in the classroom and classrooms in the museum. Vol. 16, No.
4. pp. 288-293. Anthropology & Education Quarterly: American Anthropological
Association.
Dierking, L. & Falk, J. (2000). Learning from museums: Visitor
experiences and the making of meaning. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Different voices: A social, cultural, and historical framework for change in the
American art museum (1992). New York, NY: Association of Art Museum
Directors.
Falk, J. (2009). Identity and the museum visitor experience. Walnut Creek, CA:
Left Coast Press, Inc.
Graburn, N. (1977). The museum and the visitor experience. pp. 1-5. Walnut Creek, CA:
Left Coast Press, Inc.
Hein, G. (1998). Learning in the museum. New York, NY: Routledge.
Sandell, R. (2002). Museums, society, and inequality. New York, NY: Routledge.