Learning in the Museum (Museum Meanings)

Learning in the Museum confronts the educational role which museums can have and shows how research in visitor studies and the philosophy of education can be applied to facilitate a meaningful educational experience in museums. The book contains a brief history of education in public museums, and goes on to examine how the educational theories of Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky relate to learning in the museum. A survey of the wide range of research methods employed in visitor studies is illustrated with examples taken from museums around the world. George E. Hein concludes that visitors best learn when knowledge is actively constructed in their own minds, and provides a model of the "constructivist museum"--one with exhibitions which are physically, socially, and intellectually accessible to every single visitor.