Integrating Developmental and Free-Choice Learning Frameworks to Investigate Conceptual Change in Visitor Understanding
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Complex ideas like evolution—which run counter to common, but mistaken, intuitive knowledge like the 9-year-old’s quoted above—are challenging, both for exhibit developers and for the evaluation and research teams who assess the impact of exhibitions. It is always difficult to document measurable changes in deep conceptual understanding following a single visit to an exhibition (Allen, 2008, p. 58); Is this even possible with complex topics, such as evolution? In this article, we summarize a series of studies that may offer some help to exhibit developers and evaluators, as well as others who design and assess informal learning experiences. The studies chart changes in visitors' learning based on a framework that integrates findings from recent studies on age-related changes in children's conceptual understanding —a developmental framework—with findings from studies on free-choice learning.
Source: Lincoln (University of Nebraska)
Language: English
Subfield: Museology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: Explore Evolution, Life Changes
OpenAlex ID: W1144518244