Learning from MuseumsThis is the second edition of John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking’s ground-breaking book, Learning from Museums. While the book still focuses on why, how, what, when, and with whom, people learn from their museum experiences, the authors further investigate the extension of museums beyond their walls and the changing perceptions of the roles that museums increasingly play in the 21st century with respect to the publics they serve (and those they would like to serve). This new edition offers an updated and synthesized version of the Contextual Model of Learning, as well as the latest advances in free-choice learning research, theory and practice, in order to provide readers a highly readable and informative understanding of the personal, sociocultural and physical dimensions of the museum experience. Falk and Dierking also fill in gaps in the 1st edition. Falk’s research focuses increasingly on the self-related needs that museums meet, and these findings enhance the personal context chapter. Dierking’s work delves deeply into the macro-sociocultural dimensions of learning, a topic not discussed in the sociocultural chapter in the first edition. Emphasizing the importance of time (and space), the second edition adds an entirely new chapter to describe the important dimension of time. They also insert findings from the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Latter chapters of the book discuss the evolving role of museums in the rapidly changing Information /Learning Society of the 21st century. New examples and suggestions highlight the ways that the new understandings of learning can help museum practitioners reinvent how museums can and should support the public’s lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning. |
Contents
| 12 | |
The Sociocultural Dimensions of Learning | 30 |
The Physical Dimensions of Learning | 50 |
The Dimension of Time and Space | 63 |
Museums and the Individual | 74 |
Communities of Learning | 93 |
Museums as Spaces and Places for Learning | 120 |
The Contextual Model of Learning | 148 |
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Common terms and phrases
activities adults African American agenda aquarium Benjamin Born to choose California Science Center chapter children’s museum cognitive community of practice concept Conner Prairie Contextual Model conversations create Crowley cultural Curator Dierking effective emotional engagement environment example facilitate Falk family learning focused Franklin Institute free-choice learning galleries goals groups homeostasis human ideas impact important increasingly individual’s individuals infiuence institutions interest investigated Journal of Research labels learners learning experiences learning from museums learning in museums Left Coast Press Leinhardt leisure limbic system long-term memories museum community museum experience museum learning Museum of Natural museum-going Natural History Museum one’s parents participation particular percent physical context prior knowledge psychologists Research in Science Retrieved role Science Education science learning science museum Science Teaching self-related settings social interaction society space specific Storksdieck understanding Unpublished visit motivations visitor learning Visitor Studies Walnut Creek