In his book, "Identity and the Museum Visitor Experience," John Falk makes the case that by understanding the underlying motivations that drive a visitor, a museum can create an experience that reflects a person's identity and therefore satisfy their motivation for visiting. According to Falk, this level of personal connection increases…

This article outlines the changes, developments, activities, and challenges faced by Hungarian museums over the last few decades. It shows that there was life behind the "Iron Curtain," with museums enjoying relative financial stability. While the political and economic changes associated with the transition from a communist to a…

Purpose: Research often neglects the full continuum of the STEM pipeline in terms of underserved and underrepresented populations. African American males, in particular, experience limited access, opportunity, and preparation along STEM trajectories preK-12. The purpose of this paper is to challenge this gap by presenting examples of preK-12…

Informal learning is often treated as simply an alternative to formal, didactic instruction. This chapter discusses how the organization of informal learning differs across distinct settings but with important commonalities distinguishing informal learning from formal learning: Informal learning is nondidactic, is embedded in meaningful activity,…

In this article the author addresses one of the essential questions that face teachers today: How can we welcome the foreign into our lessons in an authentic way that makes education relevant to the ongoing social, cultural, and political dialogues through which diverse learners understand themselves and their worlds? In response to this question,…

The history and heritage of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade are sensitive topics in The Netherlands. Little is known about the ways in which students attribute significance to what is presented as heritage, particularly sensitive heritage. Using theories on historical significance, we explored how students attributed significance to the…

This exploratory analysis of student attendance at science museums finds that student achievement in science and mathematics is somewhat higher for those students who visited science museums frequently during the school year or summer. The strength of the association with cognitive achievement is sufficiently noteworthy to encourage further…

By digitizing its collections and adopting a wide range of interactive tools, the Smithsonian can engage billions of people worldwide and power collaboration across nations and disciplines. The Smithsonian Institution can share its expertise and resources with K-12 schools and speed scientific discovery by giving scholars ready access to the…

The English education system has recently seen something of a revival of enthusiasm for the use of research both to develop educational practices and to gather evidence about their effectiveness. These initiatives often present action research as a model of individual problem-solving, which, we argue, communicates a limited conception of action…

An increasing number of libraries and museums provide transformative learning spaces, often called "Learning Labs" and "Makerspaces." These spaces invite users to explore traditional and digital media, interact with mentors and peers, and engage in creative projects. For these spaces and programs to be sustainable, it is…

The primacy of the research question in designing studies affords an opportunity for enhancing collaborations between researchers and "practitioners". This paper describes the use of a modified Delphi technique to co-generate research questions for a collaborative research study co-funded by a university and a natural history museum.…

The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (IHMEC) strives to engage youth as citizens through "Make a Difference! The Harvey L. Miller Family Youth Exhibition." Teaching about the Holocaust is complex and challenging work. Holocaust education is mandated in Illinois elementary and high schools, yet the Museum finds that many…

Museums are places where inspiration and learning take place for staff as well as visitors. One way that museum staff can increase their own learning is through community-based partnerships to foster exchange of knowledge and skills. For these collaborations to be effective, both the museum educator and the community partner must be able to step…

Introduction: This paper explores the characteristics of online museum visitors in an everyday life, information-seeking context. Method: A triangulation of research methods was applied. A Web questionnaire survey gave initial, quantitative information about online museum visitors to a military museum. Follow-up interviews (n = 24) obtained rich,…

The "You Are Here" digital drawing interactive is one of the most successful interpretive elements in the renovated Oakland Museum of California Gallery of California Art. This interactive grew from considering how visitors could see themselves in the gallery and how visitor awareness of the creative process could be increased. The…