The present study aims to improve the quality and the effectiveness of Science Education in early grades along with the goals of UNESCO's emerging agenda for sustainable development and the 4th goal about quality in education. It examines the interaction between formal and non-formal education in designing and organizing complete educational…

Museum visits can offer rich learning environments for preschool children. In potentiating learning environments, power is shared between adults and children as children and teachers co-construct understanding. Such learning environments also maximise opportunities for dialogue between adults, children and their peers. Drawing on the findings from…

The year 2017 was successful for the Smithsonian by any measure. Their curators opened insightful and inspirational exhibitions. Their scientists continued to do groundbreaking research that benefits humankind. Their educators are reaching more people than ever before with compelling programming. The years-long, Smithsonian-wide campaign soared…

The article examines the concept "medical museum" as a sociocultural phenomenon. The register of medical museums in Russia makes the material of research. The complex methods of analysis of the concept "medical museum" are used. The philosophical, historical, cultural, structural, communicative and semantic analysis is carried…

Social phenomenological analysis is presented as a research method to study gallery talks or guided tours in art museums. The research method is based on the philosophical considerations of Edmund Husserl and sociological/social science concepts put forward by Max Weber and Alfred Schuetz. Its starting point is the everyday lifeworld; the…

Providing hands-on experiences for teacher candidates is just as critical as facilitating opportunities for children in an elementary classroom to engage in interaction with reproductions about historical events and the past. Bringing museum trunks from the Kansas Museum of History into the pre-service classroom allows teacher candidates to…

This article addresses ways that museums can strengthen programming for d/Deaf audiences. Through the development and study of a tour for a d/Deaf audience conducted through signing and oral translation at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (Portugal), the author examines issues of language, identity and inclusion. She argues that the use of…

New digital tools and technologies create an opportunity for history museums to personalize visitor experiences, reach new audiences, and increase their relevancy by including visitors' historical narratives in museum content and programming. By adapting to the shift in social narrative prompted by digital media advancements, museums are…

In order to better understand the importance of adult learning theory to museum educators' work, and that of their profession at large, museum professionals must address the need for more adult learning research and practice in museums--particularly work informed by existing theory and work seeking to generate new theory. Adult learning theory…

Research supports the common understanding that spending enjoyable time in nature is one of the most reliable ways of reducing stress indicators such as heart rate and blood pressure. This article describes a pilot program in which the Chicago Botanic Garden leveraged nature's stress-reducing qualities to complement a program for veterans in…

This article introduces the exhibit called "Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember" and positions it as a focal point for exploring questions of disability, museum exhibition and adult education. Created by the School of Disability Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, "Out from Under" was the first…

In this article, we present an illustrative case of public pedagogy in an Icelandic museum. The museum utilised social movement learning to present the recent event and responses to the financial collapse in Iceland beginning in 2008. We illustrate how a small regional museum disrupted cultural and institutional norms to challenge visitors, local…

The purpose of this study was to explore how learners make meaning of their experiences at exhibits depicting narratives of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations of the World, free-choice learning contexts. The study focused on two exhibits at a university in the mid-Western United States. The conceptual framework of the study integrates…

Mechanisms for listening and responding to students need to offer space for diverse voices and meaningful dialogue for greater student-staff partnership. This study explores the beneficial impacts and challenges of using creative pedagogical methods to support rich dialogue for module evaluation. A variety of evaluation activities were embedded…

Drawing on data from STEM teacher education programs collected during museum closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this article examines the shifts that a large natural history museum made in educational programming. We explore three questions; who participated; the nature of participants' experiences with programming; and what we learned as an…