LEARNING & MUSEUMS

Availability and access to the internet has provided a forum to learn anytime and nearly anywhere—has this really made our society smarter?

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Learning is rapidly becoming the number one industry in the country and tourism is the largest economy in the world—largest growing parts are cultural and eco-tourism.

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Learning is a pervasive part of our world

K-12 learning and higher education learning occurs at the beginning of one’s life (formal learning), but the largest majority of learning occurs over the rest of one’s lifespan—could be filled up by family learning.

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1998-John Falk and Lynn Dierking change the language (from informal learning to free-choice learning)

Term informal learning is easy to trivialize and focused more on where the learning was happening vs what the learning was.

Focusing on the nature of learning—more choice and control over who learning with, what learning about

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            Family learning is a subset of free-choice learning

            Reinforce social history and identity through family learning

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Bring a shared background and knowledge, patterns and ways of interacting with each other—need to respect that, families actually know more about their learning than museum professionals do.

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Family Learning Infrastructure:

• Internet*

• Books, Magazines, Newspapers

• Friends & Family

• Faith-based Organizations

• Workplace

• Museums

• Libraries

• Electronic Media (radio, film)

• Schools & Universities

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*Internet is isolating and people don’t sit and talk to each other is not necessarily true..according to Lynn Dierking

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Opportunity to leverage the fact that families use museums in learning

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Why is family learning important?

• We are social creatures as humans—we learn socially and our brains are constructed to engage in social activity and very much a part of our learning process

• Families are the first institutions and groups that we belong to—has rules and ways to behaving

• Makes good economic sense to support family learning

• Visiting a museum with a child correlates with adult use

• What happens at home and in community is critical to a person’s own success

• Families are often places where children learn to be lifelong learners and lovers of history

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Learning is a sociocultural process—do and engage in with other people

Also something that we do in authentic places—learning in schools is very de-contextualized. Most learning is quite abstract

Families often create learning experiences that are not abstract, but experiential.

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Learning is all about identity building

Families use museums to reinforce identity

Using the setting of your institution to become a part of their family history

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What does family learning look like?:

• Families are the decision makers in museums—can’t control their thinking

• They choose to engage in the things they think are appropriate

• Talking and collaborating

• Constructing their own experience—social history and experience

• Enjoyable and fun

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Impact of family learning on children:

• Changes in perspective & Awareness   

  • Self-confidence

  • Independence and autonomy

  • Attitudes and perspectives on learning

• Social Development          

  • Interacting with others—peers and adults

• Interests

  • Personal interest

• Knowledge & Skills

  • Personal knowledge and skills outside of school

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Impact of family learning on adults:

• Perspective & Awareness

  • Enriched perception of importance of supporting child’s (and their own) learning

• Social Development          

  • Enhanced sense of sharing time together

• Interests

  • Increased awareness and appreciation for child’s (and their own) interest, curiosity and creativity

• Knowledge & Skills

  • Boosted confidence, interest and understanding of how to support learning of child (and them)​