PEDAGOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY: Knowledge & Understanding 

• Pedagogy--the "how" of learning 

• Epistemology--the "what" of learning 

These two are inseparable and between them exists a dynamic tension

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How people in education and people in museums think about learning...may be different

Always trying to balance working between knowledge and understanding and pedagogy.

Have to balance key ideas and information (the WHAT) and HOW people. You can't have pedagogy without epistemology! They go hand in hand. 

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How are people learning?

1. Handling

2. Manipulating

3. Discussing

4. Facilitated by adults

5. Drawing

6. Engaging with objects

7. Reflecting

8. People of all ages--grandparents and grandchildren discussing together (intergenerational learning--trigger family or memories of different generations--often helps build respect and understanding of one anothe.) Helps to re-build relationships that may have become strained. 

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Jerome Bruner: Ways of mentally representing the world

• Enactive: understanding by doing

• Iconic: understating by using maps, diagrams and pictures

• Symbolic: understanding though spoken and written language and other forms of notation (mathematical, musical, dance…)

Traditionally in formal education: younger classes use a lot of hands on learning, you’re doing something very practical (sinking or floating ships….counting using real money)—Enactive learning. However, lifelong learners are always learning through the active process. Can you provide opportunities to engage with something while showing what they understand from the knowledge they’ve obtained?

Piaget and Vygotsky

Constructivism: knowledge is seen as something which learners actively construct for themselves. In new situations learners build on other previous experiences of learning. Piagetian approaches are based on stages of development in childhood. At different points in your childhood most children will be able to read, write, etc. Making sense of what you know based on something you already knew beforehand

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Social Constructivism: knowledge is still seen as something which learners actively construct for themselves but this time in collaboration with others. This approach puts social interaction through language and culture as central to successful learning.

Biggest difference is the notion of SOCIAL—if you work with other people then you can help one another and collaborate to further learning. Together you will have a greater whole of knowledge. Language and culture is a HUGE contributing factor…because it assumes we all come from the same background and have the same base knowledge and understanding.

Learning is not just facts, learning is about affirming self and is a rich emotion-laden experience.

How much should museums provide an opportunity to challenge your already affirmed notions??

Hooper-Greenhill:

Identified difficulties with the way in which the purpose of learning is conceived by Falk and Dierking.

“an ecological approach to culture, with culture defined as… a social mechanism enabling individuals to survive. The purpose of learning is accommodation to society.”

Are museums institutions which prop up a society view? Or are you an institution that challenges those notions?

Museums are so embodied as the cultural elite institutions of the world

Must be about social inclusion, but accommodating to the public?

Who are museums for?

Depending on the museum…you could be private and supported by donors or could be independent and could do what you like. Local authority museum—must follow protocols by local authority.

According to Hooper-Greenhill learning is:

• Idiosyncratic and unpredictable

• Individual and collective (social constructivism)

• Relate and shape individual learning through interactions with others, social spaces, and specific tools for learning. (photographs, text, talking with one another, objects…)

• Search for personal relevance

• Situated knowledge-knowledge that makes sense. Link to physical or subject-related context

• Built upon what learners already know to make prior knowledge deeper

• Rarely involve learning something new entirely

• Result in explanations and knowledge which is provisional—there is an idea that there is a “right” way to learn….thinking goes on and research goes on and things are constantly evolving and changing. Getting people to feel comfortable that things aren’t definitive and can change with time and understanding as knowledge evolves. What we knew 100 years ago is likely very different than what we know today about this thing.

Making of Meaning:                                                                      

Communities of Practice: people with similar interest; things that people do that are shared. Words that I can use as a teacher are words that are all/most teachers know or ideas/approaches to work.

*Museums often take for granted that everyone exists in the same bubble. Each individual comes from a different context…what’s the best way to approach this point of view for all to understand.

Using these themes to organize an event or display (Generic Learning Outcomes—GLO):

• Knowledge and Understanding

• Skills--communication

• Attitudes and Values—empathy, motivation, opinions, attitudes

• Enjoyment, Inspiration, Creativity

• Activity Behavior and Progression