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Respected museum professional and consultant Kathleen McLean examines the shift towards a more participatory culture of display and exhibition in museums. She cites numerous examples from different types of museums...

This article discusses a study that investigated teacher perceptions of group visits to a science museum in Taiwan. Thirty teachers who traveled with large groups were interviewed about two issues:...

This report proposes a comprehensive study to answer the question: How does conversation as a socially mediating activity act as both a process and an outcome of museum learning experiences?...

Key to introducing information and communication technologies in museums is to support meaning-making activity in encounters with artefacts. The study presented in this paper is exploratory in nature and investigates...

This tool was created by Museum of Science, Boston Design Challenges educators and the Research and Evaluation team, intended to record observations of children’s engagement in the engineering design process...

In this article, Jacksonville State University's Stephen Bitgood and Sherri Lankford discuss museum orientation and circulation, including conceptual orientation and wayfinding. The authors analyze previsit orientation, lobby orientation, during-visit orientation,...

In this article, Eugene Dillenburg, an Exhibit Developer at The Science Museum of Minnesota, shares a collection of stories from colleagues about their experiences in the museum field. The stories...

In this paper, Tara D. Knott of Evaluation Resources, Inc. discusses the importance of summative evaluation to assess the value of a museum program in addition to setting clear goals....

In this article, John H. Falk of Science Learning Inc. discusses the influence of recollection on learning in museums. Falk shares findings from a series of pilot ethnographic style interviews...

Museum learning involves a wide range of recollections about a diverse set of experiences encountered over the course of a museum visit. Three key features are: 1) visitors "learn" about...

This article describes how some museums are expanding their partnerships with schools and encouraging teachers to view museums as more than field trip destinations. This article describes the benefits of...

In this article, Jacksonville State University's Amy Cota and Stephen Bitgood present abstracts of papers and articles on museum studies focused on memory....

This is a summary of Ross Loomis's 1987 book entitled "Museum Visitor Evaluation: New Tool for Management." The book is a valuable "textbook" and useful reference for professionals in exhibition-type...

Visitors to art museums vary on a number of a dimensions related to how they construct their museum experience. The visiting preferences and intentions of a sample of visitors to...

In this paper, Pedro J.E. Casaleiro of the University of Leicester, Department of Museum Studies, discusses research that considers the investigation of evidence in mass media other than museums to...

In this paper, the learning resources and museum visit that formed part of an undergraduate teaching sequence on the special theory of relativity are described and discussed. Findings highlight the...

In this article, Richard Faron, independent museum consultant, discusses how the act of musuem building can unite communities and the government. Faron uses Iraq as an "imaginary case study" to...

Museums are increasingly engaging with their communities in understanding and addressing the complex questions of our society. How is this effort manifested in museum practice, and what is the impact...

Briseño-Garzón analyzed interviews with 20 families after they visited Universum Museo de las Ciencias. She concluded that the benefits of visiting a science museum are “much more than science,” including...

The article assesses professional development in the field of science through curricular and instructive methods in the museum. The National Science Education Standards, along with independent researchers, confirm and stress...

This paper describes an approach to familiarizing individuals with modern scientific processes through the facilitation of informal learning experiences in and around the museum. Several methods for development of such...

This is a handout from a session presented at the 2008 ASTC Conference. Advances in neuroscience are revealing biological pathways underlying emotion, attention, and memory. How can this research be...

This book addresses controversial changes in a major cultural organization through the lens of a vital need for a shift in thinking as museums enter the 21st century. Robert Janes...

In this article, Jim Spadaccini, owner and Creative Director of Ideum, examines the influence of Web 2.0 media and how new models (wikis, blogs, community sites, etc.) provoke new ideas...

This article transcribes remarks given by Willard L. Boyd at the Visitor Studies Association Annual Conference in Orlando on August 3, 2001. Boyd discusses the complexities and challenges of museums...