As the "Journal of Museum Education" reaches its fifty-year publication milestone, this article traces the roots of the Museum Education Roundtable (MER) and the organization's resulting journal, both critical to professionalizing and shaping the field of museum education. Central to this publishing effort were the relationships amongst…

Object-based teaching (OBT) has grown in popularity in American higher education over the past 20 years and is now practiced at a broad range of post-secondary institutions, from community colleges to Research 1 universities. However, the prospects for OBT are changing. After the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice…

Recent literature on mentoring revises the long-held notion of a dyadic, master-apprentice affiliation to better reflect the fluid, flexible, and even non-hierarchical dynamics that occur between mentors and mentees today. Relational mentoring, intersectional mentoring, and co-mentoring models offer frameworks for reconsidering the role of…

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced museum educators to draw on new resources, which has led to the increased use of social media as an educational tool. This qualitative study explores museum education through social media using an adapted museum education theoretical model. The more specific aim is to address the approaches, experiences, and…

Background: In this paper, we add to the scant literature base on learning from failures with a particular focus on understanding educators' shifting mindset in making-centred learning environments. Aims: The aim of Study 1 was to explore educators' beliefs about failure for learning and instructional practices within their local making-centred…

Most museum education research has focused on examining collaborative partnerships between artists and schoolteachers or artists and museum educators, in schools or art museums. This research investigates the collaborative partnership among artists, museum educators, and schoolteachers within the context of art museum education. Using the Double…

This case study, using triangulation-focused mixed methodology, analyzes the perceptions of 477 elementary school pupils after exposure to Visual Thinking Strategies through the educational programs of the Barcelona Picasso Museum. Pupils' learning preferences and their perceived impact of Visual Thinking Strategies were studied in the aftermath…

In this article, I explore how relationships can change the teaching practices of museum educators and strategies of entire organizations by empirically studying conversations museum educators have every day in meetings, in the hallways, and all the places where they talk about their work. I present the possibilities of reciprocal telling…

This design case explores the design of a learning framework at a museum. Specifically, the case explores the development of learning practices (LPs) for an arts-based learning space and uses these practices to explain and design for learning and deepening engagement. These LPs represent a means for developing a common language across studio…

Using historical thinking for analyzing the teaching and learning of secondary school history, this paper contributes to literature and debates on the pedagogical potential of museums in this endeavor. Despite the existence of museums and expansive literature on their historical significance in various world settings, there has not been much…

The pedagogies of fostering possibility thinking (PT) have been investigated for over a decade in early year and primary settings. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that sought to identify the teachers' pedagogical practices that foster children's (aged 9-10) PT through alternative resources of learning such as museums in…

While previous research has highlighted the significance of pedagogical approaches such as story, embodiment, and play for young children's science learning, limited attention has been given to how these three approaches can be integrated into a learning environment to support science learning for young children. Accordingly, this study designed a…

Although strong claims have been made about museums being ideal word learning environments, these are yet to be empirically supported. In the current study, 152 four- to five-year-olds children (81-M, 71-F) from minority backgrounds were taught six vocabulary items either in a museum, in their classroom with museum resources, or in their classroom…

Science museums have demonstrated over time, and through various academic researches, to be a favorable environment to awaken the desire to learn more about scientific content, bringing visitors closer to artifacts and concepts in a different way than any other media can offer. In this research, we investigate how the public interacts with the…

In this essay, we explore ways in which cultural and museum spaces can be opened up to meaningful discussions about difficult topics and how this can be done through specific educational formats. We attempt to look critically at some of the assumptions that are around in critical museum education theory and practices, e.g. influences coming from…