How Museum’s Prepare for their Learners

by: Jeff Pruett- Director

A museum serves to educate its public in a variety of ways.  We are first and foremost a learning environment for our many patrons through our varied programming options and exhibits.  We also interpret, explain, and focus on meaning of various subjects.  Finally, we look at identity, motivation and interest of our learners.  These three themes each emphasize different aspects of the learning setting: the design of the environment, the interface between people and the environment, and people themselves.  These different themes when looked at together help us see that the whole is more than the sum of the study.  When staff creates this framework or foundation, it makes for a better learning experience for our visitors.

1. Learning and Learning Environments The first theme expresses the relationships between learning and the design of learning environments (such as galleries).  Museum staff addresses the many ways that images, text, models, etc. serve as mediators for learning, and they search how the findings from these studies inspire the progress and design of exhibits.  Learning and learning environments definitely go hand in hand.  Museum professionals look at theory and design experiments to determine the best experience for our visitors.     

2. Interpretation, Meaning and Explanation The second theme focuses on meaning, interpretation, and explanation as products and processes of social interaction.  Here, the interaction between curators, the institution, the designer, docents, is vital.  Again, text, images, etc. are focused on, but specifically how they affect the issues of meaning, explanations, and interpretation.  We address how patrons and varied groups make sense of their experiences in museums, focusing on the nature of intentions and social interactions among viewers, as well as between viewers and the museum. This theme guides our study of how meanings are influenced by interactions.

3. Identify, Motivation and Interests The final theme looks closely at the previous experience related to the individual’s identity as a learner.  This theme influences additional museum involvement and serves as a means in which a visit can continue to play out in a visitor’s future.  This theme also considers how museum experiences change the ways that people see themselves as learners of varied subject matter such as art or history.