Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2000 - Architecture - 272 pages
Why do people go to museums and what do they learn there? What roles can museums serve in a learning community? How can museums facilitate more effective learning experiences? John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking investigate these questions in Learning from Museums. Synthesizing theories and research from a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, education, anthropology, neuroscience and museum research, Falk and Dierking explain the nature and process of learning as it occurs within the museum context and provides advice on how museums can create better learning environments. Visit the authors' web page
 

Contents

Learning from Museums An Introduction
1
The Personal Context
15
The Sociocultural Context
37
The Physical Context
53
Museums and the Individual
69
Communities of Learners
91
A Place for Learning
113
The Contextual Model of Learning
135
Documenting Learning from Museums
149
Making Museums Better Learning Experiences
177
Museums in the Larger Society
205
The Future of Museums
219
References
237
Index
265
About the Authors
271
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

John Falk is a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland, where he resides. Lynn Dierking is a co-founder and co-director of the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland, where she resides.