Dr. Joanne Cacciatore is a research professor at Arizona State University, a bereavement educator, and the founder of the MISS Foundation. Her research focuses on traumatic grief and loss. In this interview, Dr. Cacciatore offers her thoughts on grief, some misconceptions, and her notion of fierce compassion. The interviewers and Dr. Cacciatore…

Interest is an important precursor to engaging the public in environmental and science learning. We used focus groups to explore ocean learning interests of inland residents of a coastal U.S. state, reasons for those interests, and differences between adults and children. We found adults and children generally had similar interests including…

Conversations surrounding decolonial humanistic sociology have been guided by a moral imperative--to advance a radical critique of society for the purpose of reducing inequality. Storytelling has been used by marginalized groups to advance decolonization. Exactly how can instructors use the power of storytelling and maps to facilitate the study of…

This article analyses the educational possibilities of art installations in the training of future early childhood and primary school teachers. I start by reviewing the origins of installation art before presenting an experience designed for teachers based on the creation of scale models and installation experiences. Scale model installations…

This dissertation discovers a hybrid collaborative curation and creation exhibition project at the Florida State University's Museum of Fine Arts. This research serves as a tangible application to integrate the third place theory (Oldenburg, 1997) and constructivist museum practices (Hein, 1998) under the umbrella of participatory action research.…

The present paper examines possible benefits of spatial audio guides on learning outcomes in the spatial learning setting of an experimental exhibition and attempts to differentiate between different mechanisms underlying such an effect. In Experiment 1, we examined whether the spatial contiguity principle may be such a mechanism. A spatial audio…

Crisis times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the martial law in Ukraine have actualized the creation of various exhibitions in academic libraries to reach and attract users. In particular, to overcome social isolation, anxiety, and emotional and mental exhaustion. This study discusses the authors' practical experience of building a partnership…

Museums are complex, intersectional informal learning spaces that are situated in a distinctive positionality of power, social trust, and colonialism. For many people, they serve as community spaces that empower the imagination and connect intergenerational learning, while simultaneously functioning as prestigious institutions for research and…

This paper describes the development and execution of an exhibition in an academic museum setting. The exhibition is presented as a self-directed learning intervention. The development process included conceptual development, the selection of exhibition materials, the creation of didactic written materials, spatial arrangement of the materials,…

This article explores the use of an interactive mnemonic device called a "Map of Memories" to navigate the museum theater production "Our Footprints," staged in 2017 in the Bergtheil Museum in Durban, South Africa. The Map is an interactive tool used by audience members to explore the exhibits and the performance through…

Museum communication spaces in art education enable a setting for education work that activates and involves the visitors. With appreciation, respect, and awareness, safe spaces for open communication are created. The text negotiates the framework of what we talk about, who determines and defines the negotiated topics. It is important to be aware…

This article analyzes the presentation of the Second World War in the multimedia "history parks" of the Russian educational project "Russia My History." In these exhibition complexes, modern digital technologies offer visitors a "revolutionary" way to discover Russian history. The article first explores the history…

Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen, lived in Nantwich, Cheshire, UK, from 1758 to 1761. In 2019, an exhibition featuring his life and achievements, and also celebrating the International Year of the Periodic Table, was developed by the Nantwich Museum. The historical research of Priestley's life, development of the exhibition, and rationale…

Socializing and interaction are important aspects for families who visit museums. Mixed reality (MR) uses a set of technologies that museums employ to encourage this behavior, but they face challenges in maintaining family cohesion with experiences across different exhibitions and kiosks. In this paper, we explore these challenges broadly to…

Educational opportunities occur through naturalistic everyday life experiences (e.g., reading a newspaper, listening to a podcast, or visiting a museum). Research primarily examines learning under controlled conditions, such as in a classroom or laboratory. There is relatively little known about the extent to which adults extract semantic content,…