Discussion of informal learning (intrinsically motivated, non-linear, and self-directed) in museums focuses on a study of museum professionals that investigated learning experiences in their lives. Highlights four types of learning: sparking an interest; delayed learning; visceral learning; and wrap-around learning. (LRW)

This special section comprises a cluster of three related articles: "Museum Outreach: Kits and Curricula"; "Museum Outreach: Traveling Exhibits"; and "Museum Outreach: Van pPrograms." Characterizes outreach activities as being central to the mission of many informal learning institutions and presents several examples of each type of outreach…

Museums face a crisis of confidence arising from two issues: (1) the erosion of an historically unreliable funding base, and (2) a challenge for audience by entrepreneurial elements in the cultures. Suggests that museums remember their capability of teaching hard information, stop emulating the forces that threaten them, and learn lessons from the…

Presents research and public values of natural history museum collections. Research values include documenting biotas no longer available and serving as inspiration for scientific discovery. Public values include servings as resources for identification of unknown specimens, hands-on education, and depositories for evidence of the history and…

Describes the traveling exhibition, "Free within Ourselves," that features the works of 31 African American artists taken from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art. Provides biographical information and examples of the work of seven artists: Lois Mailou Jones; Frederick Brown; Bob Thompson; Bill Traylor; Sam Gilliam; Edmonia Lewis;…

Discusses the distinction between record-oriented and pattern-oriented questions and relates them to information seeking at museums. Describes the Core of Discovery, a prototype system for exploring collections of textual data at The Historic New Orleans Collection, which includes keyword retrieval, concept retrieval, and pattern-oriented…

Examines the role of digital technology in the context of art education and art exploration. Discusses the development of digital environments as the next step in the evolution of traditional computers, whose main characteristic is support for simultaneous multiple-user interactions and for social and collaborative activities. (LRW)

Discussion of digital libraries focuses on the development of an image database of Native Americans that would be searchable on the Web. Describes a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services that Montana State University used for the project and discusses collaboration between libraries, museums, and archives. (LRW)

Reports on a study designed to identify and measure family learning in science museums. Findings indicate that families do learn from exhibits and the level of learning is related to specific observed behaviors. Grouping these behaviors as performance indicators provides a useful measure of exhibit learning. Appendixes include a demographic…

Over the past decade, most American museum educators have adopted as their objective helping museum visitors "learn how to look." They have embraced various kinds of participatory and interactive learning programs, encouraging engagement with works of art in the museum gallery through a process of inquiry shared by visitors and their guides. The…

A class visit to an informal science center can do wonders to broaden students? horizons while challenging creative thinking. However, students will get much more out of the visit with a little preparation. One of the best ways to prepare students is by providing them with a focus question to research during the visit. Some centers will be able…

This paper presents two perspectives that the author believes will contribute to an enhanced ability to describe and understand learning from museums. Arguably, a major strength of the past decade of research on learning from museums has been the description and investigation of many of the myriad factors that appear to influence learning from…

In this article, I describe how one group of student examines indigenous identity formation as dynamic and open to reinterpretation. Drawing on field observations and interviews with students in a 16-month ethnographic study, I examine how one group of students worked toward understanding how indigenous identity was determined by curatorial…

Constructivist theories of learning and recent research into aesthetic experience suggest that most people actually benefit by instruction in various means of engagement with art, and that engagement is most fulfilling when it actively challenges, builds on, and extends the knowledge, aptitudes, and abilities of the museum visitor. This in turn…

Museum education is a field of practice that is guided effectively by traditions of practice addressing museums' purposes and expected audiences, and rarely explicitly refers to the numerous models of curriculum theory that are available to guide educational practice in the school setting. But curriculum models can be useful both for describing…