This research project examines the way that children and parents talk about science outside of school and, specifically, how they show distributed expertise about biological topics during visits to a science center. We adopt a theoretical framework that looks at learning on three interweaving planes: individual, social, and cultural (tools,…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the results of the Log Analysis of Internet Resources in the Arts and Humanities (LAIRAH) study. It aims to concentrate upon the use and importance of information resources, physical research centres and digital finding aids in scholarly research. Design/methodology/approach: Results are presented…

The taking up of an "educative" mantle has proven to be a complex task for museums, filled with many unknown and/or misunderstood factors. Of the vast assortment of educational opportunities museums afford their adult patrons and staff, the majority fall into one or two learning categories: either they are nonformal or informal. In effort to…

How are educators moving museums' interpretive goals beyond exhibition galleries? How are programs creating new relationships between a museum and its adult audiences? As plans for physical transformation at the Chicago History Museum took form, the education department launched a parallel process of planning to redefine the "look and…

Digital preservation is a significant challenge for cultural heritage institutions and other repositories of digital information resources. Recognizing the critical role of metadata in any successful digital preservation strategy, the Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) has been extremely influential on providing a "core" set…

This study investigated criteria that 91 pre-service teachers used to evaluate award-winning virtual museum exhibits for future use in teaching. Individual differences affected ratings, including teaching experience, age and gender. A categorization of participants' reasons for selection included audience level, site design and information…

In the early twentieth century, a curriculum known as nature study flourished in major city school systems, streetcar suburbs, small towns, and even rural one-room schools. This object-based approach to learning about the natural world marked the first systematic attempt to introduce science into elementary education, and it came at a time when…

Practitioners in informal science settings--museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, libraries, aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens--are interested in finding out what learning looks like, how to measure it, and what they can do to ensure that people of all ages, from different backgrounds and cultures,…

Design-Based Research (DBR) has been a tool of the learning sciences since the early 1990s, used as a way to improve and study learning environments. Using an iterative process of design with the goal of reining theories of learning, researchers and educators now use DBR seek to identify "how" to make a learning environment work. They then draw…

This account describes the total reengineering of an organization with the attendant changes to the culture, the nature of the work, the rethinking of the organizational purpose, and the identification of a new customer base and new concepts of how the organization will reach it. The case is presented not as scientific research but as a case of…

In contrast to other school subjects, social studies has not received adequate attention in the education of students with disabilities, although it is an important domain of study for all students. In this article, the authors describe how teachers can use Web-based tools, such as the Virtual History Museum (VHM), to complement their instruction.…

The study aims to characterize contextual learning during class visits to science and natural history museums. Based on previous studies, we assumed that "outdoor" learning is different from classroom-based learning, and free choice learning in the museums enhances the expression of learning in personal context. We studied about 750 students…

Museums and buildings are both considered immutable by the majority of people who use them. A small team from Goldsmiths College, the V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership and Pimlico School set out to challenge this preconception. The Victoria & Albert museum was taken as a case study to investigate how buildings are a physical…

This article outlines art education courses undertaken in museum and gallery contexts as a component of the Certificate Programme in Visual and Material Culture within the University of British Columbia's Department of Curriculum Studies. With the creation of this programme and through the forging of relationships with area museums, unique ways…

The National Science Museum (NSM) in Japan has recently completed a project using different types of visitor-oriented digital technologies. With sponsorship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the NSM team carried out a four-year study to examine how digital technologies can be used to enhance as well as educationally…