John Dewey believed that all genuine learning comes about through experience. This introduction to Dewey's work explains Dewey's theories regarding knowledge and intellectual development, the acquisition of a body of facts versus learning scientific ways of treating experience, and the significance of Dewey's theories on informal learning centers…

Focuses on the exhibition titled "American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age" that documents the efforts and achievements of the United States in the area of design arts. States that the exhibition features more than 150 objects, including furniture, posters, and radios, by leading designers of the early and mid century. (CMK)

Features the artist David Bierk, who uses three subject areas in his paintings: (1) landscapes; (2) still lifes; and (3) "history paintings." Explains that Bierk abstracts and adapts these subjects to create personal tributes to artworks by famous artists. (CMK)

Virtual field trips offer a new way for teachers and students to visit historical sites and museums. Most notably, virtual field trips provide access to places that normally would be impossible for classrooms to visit, and this, in turn, provides a plethora of learning possibilities for the classroom. Why should teachers consider creating a…

Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning was used as a theoretical construct for investigating learning within a free-choice setting. A review of previous research identified key variables fundamental to free-choice science learning. The study sought to answer two questions: (1) How do specific independent variables individually contribute…

This article describes the programmes and workshops available for both parents and young children at the Tate Modern Gallery. The main aim of this paper is to convey a sense of the pedagogy that was used by one of the workshop leaders, Michaela Ross, an artist-educator. The authors accomplish this by drawing on a tape recorded discussion which…

Professor Barb Woods observes her students working diligently in the Spencer Museum of Art galleries. As the 3-hour session progresses, the students increase their observational skills as they examine works of art that depict the relationship of healthcare and society and illustrate how views of doctors and pharmacists have changed over time. The…

Museums are rich resources of artifacts, archives, and experiences. Today, teachers can access those resources to enhance student learning in more ways that ever before. Technology has allowed museums to make natural and cultural information free and available to those who visit onsite or online. This article features an online activity that…

The St. Louis, Missouri Educational Museum has its roots in the 1904 Centennial Exposition, held at Forest Park on the edge of the city. The theme of the exposition was education and technology. Seventy thousand local school children visited the exposition, and at its conclusion an initiative was launched to purchase some of the exhibitions as…

This article examines how curriculum studies can inform training and development programs for museum teachers (docents, interpreters, guides, gallery educators, and so on). It focuses on the results of a year-long study done with eight museum teachers in three Canadian informal learning settings. A key aim of this research was to examine the…

The Children's Museum of the Arts, located in SoHo, is a community center where children and families create together through involvement with the visual and performing arts. The families that participate in the programming offered by the Museum are living, and perhaps working and going to school, in the shadows of what used to be the World Trade…

One potential asset to science learning that is often overlooked is the presence of learning institutions, other than schools, located in metropolitan areas. These "informal" learning institutions include universities, libraries, museums, science centers, and similar places. These organizations have the potential to provide resources, in the form…

This article features the museums of Oaxaca, the place where the community museum movement in Mexico got started. Oaxaca has the largest Indigenous population in Mexico, with about 36.6% of the population over five years old, or about 1.027 million people, speaking an Indigenous language. Tourists spend large amounts on group or personalized tours…

This report summarizes findings from the Academy for Educational Development's (AED's) evaluation of After-School Math PLUS (ASM+). This program was designed to help students find the math in everyday experiences and create awareness about the importance of math skills for future career options. The evaluation was conducted by AED's Center for…

The objective of this article is to study the network and virtual reality technologies for developing a virtual dinosaur museum, which provides a Web-learning environment for students of all ages and the general public to know more about dinosaurs. We first investigate the method for building the 3D dynamic models of dinosaurs, and then describe…