This article argues that releasing images of artworks into the public domain creates a new possibility for the public to challenge the canon or create their own, based on access to previously inaccessible images. Through the dissemination of openly licensed artworks across the Internet, museums can support the public in expanding their engagement…

This paper presents an outline of the history and the current orientation of informal learning in museums, museum pedagogy. This is the result of a lengthy process over the last two centuries, which became particularly intensive from the 1960s, in which museums looked for deeper ways to communicate with visitors, starting from basic presentation…

The introduction of online elements to museums and cultural sites has opened up new ways for visitors to engage with the past, with nature, with culture, and all other treasures of the museum. However, docent training has lagged behind visitor-facing educational initiatives. By blending online elements into docent education programs, staff…

Engaging students in designing, testing, and revising engineering models using mathematical representation of data from scientific investigations helps them embody the science and engineering practices highlighted in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States, 2013). The practices of modeling, conducting failure analysis,…

Critical museological perspectives have in recent years opened up new conceptual spaces for emerging forms of art museum practice. This article addresses the theme of changing ideologies and methodologies in art museums by offering an anecdote shaped by art museum practices, then theorizing potential responses from object-based, visitor-centered,…

This case study describes a project designed by university museum curators, managers and educators working in collaboration with curriculum designers to elicit new uses for university museum collection objects in the delivery of tertiary, secondary and primary education programs. It involves an object-based learning community of practice…

Advocates for the use of story in science education assert that it can bolster understanding of science concepts in classroom settings and enhance interest and engagement. However, only a handful of classroom studies confirm these claims, and many of them use story as an introduction, not the primary method of content delivery. Reasons for this…

Consciousness-raising practices at the heart of feminism remain one of the most vital components of transformative learning theory and provide the foundation for its constructivist underpinnings. Recently, there has been a call for educators to employ consciousness-raising practices outside of traditional classroom settings and to focus greater…

In early January 2017, educators and leaders at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum considered how they could best address the need for news literacy training in the wake of the fake news eruption. In the spirit of shared authority, the Reagan Library and Museum partnered with Pepperdine University to create a public forum,…

Theoretical and practical implications of incorporating Quick Response (QR) codes in a traveling international art exhibition are addressed in this paper. Blending the physical and virtual dimensions, the exhibition undergirded a pilot study of the integration of technology into traditional museum settings in both China and the United States. The…

Given the recent and ongoing debates about race and inclusion, history classes can turn to the study of local groups that have been marginalized in an effort to increase students' cultural awareness. One such local history project took place in Evansville, Indiana from 2011 to 2013 through collaboration between the University of Southern Indiana…

For years, museums of all varieties, including art museums, science centers, history museums, zoos, and aquariums, have conducted education evaluation. However, museums are all too often faced with the challenge of allocating staff time, expertise, and other resources toward conducting evaluation, particularly evaluation that moves beyond program…

In this commentary, the authors propose than an intersectionality perspective can transform understandings of the contentious content of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). The use of an intersectionality perspective starts from the position that such discourses as racialization, gendering, capitalism, and ableism are mutually…

University students are often expected to interpret and produce multimodal texts during their studies. However, their multimodal literacy is rarely developed explicitly and students often lack the language and the knowledge to talk and write about multimodal experiences. Such expectations demand knowledge and skills to approach multimodal texts in…

This article is a reflection as a teaching scholar of Latin American art in London, Ontario, a city, as many others in Canada, where there is no major Latin American collection for students to visit. The experiences narrated are related to a specific course taught in the Fall of 2016 at Western University and to two exhibitions that took place…