Museum pedagogy

 A review

Background

It seems self-evident that museums are places of learning. That visitors come to learn based on what the museum offers in the kaleidoscope of cultural heritage available.

How do museums provide the learning opportunities to the visitor whether they are children, families, or foreign tourists?

That is the focus of this review.

In 2020 the International Council of Museums had an article[1] focussing on museum learning as a forgotten profession. They argued that the term “education” had many interpretations and in some instances was interpreted as “representing the omniscient museum that explains the wonders of the world and arts from a high ivory tower to a passive audience. This is far from reality.”

[2]Falk and Dierking’s contextual model of learning in museums is considered important in understanding how museums can improve the effectiveness of learning in museums.

[3]Mifsud argues that museums should have trained educators to run museum learning programmes.

Learning design and delivery is not always treated the same as other positions in museums. The new National Museum in Oslo has a trained pedagog but she does not get the same salary as curators with the same education and experience[4]. Is this a signal from management? Does the focus on subject matter expertise override the need to provide learning experiences for visitors?

Clearly change is on the way.

“Over the past 30 years the work undertaken by museum educators has broadened considerably. Programs consisting of children sitting in rows listening to a ‘lecture’ and having specimens or objects passed around, or filing past displayed objects, have largely disappeared. There has been a major shift towards experiential opportunities for students to enjoy shared, engaging, and relevant experiences. Many more programs are conducted within exhibition spaces. Many more programs emphasise learning processes more than outcomes — for example, how to look, interrogate, deduce, and evaluate. Inquiry-based learning, personalised learning agendas and allowing students to have ownership and responsibility for their learning rather than simply gathering information are emphasised.”[5]

Circumstances also dictate how best to provide that learning experience. The Viking Ship Museum in Oslo is undergoing a major transformation to remodel itself as the Viking Age Museum. It has decided to use external assistance from a major European designer of museums[6]. At another project and a at a different scale the Munch Museum in Oslo will reorganize to strengthen its commercial offering. A part of this is to appoint a deputy director for “formidling”, working on the design and delivery of learning.[7]

Both projects utilise external partners to realise their goals.

So how best to provide learning experiences for museums? Could internal strengthening of competence in the field of learning design be of value?

Terminology is important here. Pedagogy often refers to the development and delivery of subject content and is commonly used in school settings. In those instances the individual has both subject content knowledge, learning development skills and delivery or presentation competence. So a museum pedagog is the person who develops the learning experience and may deliver it.

However this might still leave the development as a “teacher knows best approach” where the SME (subject matter expert) develops the learning for the content they are expert in and misses opportunities to involve LED’s (learning experience developers) and other actors and the learners themselves in the development process.

Perhaps there is something to be gained by using the discipline of instructional design in its structured systems approach to the design of learning.

It has been used in museums to enhance the learning experience.[8]

There are two important caveats here. First, ID adopts a learner-centred approach to development of learning, the learner is involved in the process. Secondly, the delivery of the experience is left to others with the guidance and presentation skills required. The focus is on design of learning. It also provides concrete learning outcomes where “action verbs” based on levels of cognition demanded are an element of design. Identifying a Norlands boat is a lower level of cognition than differentiating a Norlands boat from a Nordfjord boat. By comparison understanding Norwegian coastal boats is vague type of learning outcome that is open to different interpretations.

For many decades now the ADDIE model of instructional design has been used, modified ad implemented in learning and training.[9] Its 5 distinct phases of development provide a structure to for development.  The analysis phase focuses on setting goals and analysing the “target population”, the learners. The design phase creates the learning outcomes and the steps needed to reach them whilst the development phase produces and tests the content. The implementation and evaluation phases often run concurrently as the results are evaluated and the design modified. [10]

 

Another advantage in a structured and systematic approach is that the different uses of technology can be ascertained for the given learning objectives to find the appropriate use of gaming, simulation, and mobile based learning.

Gaming has become very popular with the younger generations[11][12] and now is as popular as streaming pay TV.[13] Perhaps gaming has a role to play in enhancing museum learning experiences. The point is that a learning experience designer can assess the need for different modes and media for sets of given learning objectives. Balancing intellectual skill needs against motor skills is part of the design process. When to employ simulation as opposed to the real scenario for example.

There is no simple solution, only the opportunity to explore different approaches that need in our modern world to incorporate some form of technology.

 

References

Australia, National Museum of. ‘Understanding Museums - The Museum Education Mix: Students, Teachers and Museum Educators’. National Museum of Australia, 20 October 2011. https://nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/JGriffin_2011.html.

Bugg, Sarah. ‘Museums at Play’. In Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning, edited by Katy Beale, 69–72. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, 2011.

Falk, John H., and Lynn D. Dierking. Learning from Museums. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

Hamburg, KulturPort De Kultur-Magazin. ‘Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo appoints Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) and Tamschick Media+Space (TMS) for the design and realisation of museum’. KulturPort.De — Follow Arts ~ Online-Magazin, 11 July 2022. https://www.kultur-port.de/news/17958-museum-of-the-viking-age-in-oslo-appoints-ralph-appelbaum-associates-raa-and-tamschick-media-space-tms-for-the-design-and-realisation-of-museum.html.

‘Hun ønsker seg et statusløft for formidling ved museene. Møt Line Engen ved Nasjonalmuseet.’ Accessed 16 February 2023. https://www.forskerforum.no/hun-onsker-seg-et-statusloft-for-formidling-ved-museene-mot-line-engen-ved-nasjonalmuseet/.

International Council of Museums. ‘Museum Education and Learning: The Forgotten Professions?’ Accessed 19 February 2023. https://icom.museum/en/news/museum-education-and-learning-the-forgotten-professions/.

Kurt, Dr Serhat. ‘ADDIE Model: Instructional Design’. Educational Technology (blog), 29 August 2017. https://educationaltechnology.net/the-addie-model-instructional-design/.

Lambert, Stephanie. ‘Museums at Play’. In Museums at Play: Games, Interaction and Learning, edited by Katy Beale, 384–95. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc, 2011.

Md Nor, Romiza, and Muhammad Hafizuddin Abdul Razak. ‘Interactive Design in Enhancing User Experience in Museum’. Journal of Computing Research and Innovation 6, no. 3 (13 September 2021): 86–91. https://doi.org/10.24191/jcrinn.v6i3.249.

‘Ready,Player Four Billion’. The Economist, 25 March 2023.

Times of Malta. ‘Museums Are Places for Learning’. Accessed 30 January 2023. https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/museums-are-places-for-learning.321423.

‘Tone Hansen vil styrke den kommersielle profilen ved Munchmuseet’, 20 April 2023. https://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/i/eJe32R/munchmuseet-vil-styrke-den-kommersielle-profilen.

Vulpen, Erik van. ‘The ADDIE Model for Instructional Design Explained’. AIHR (blog), 2 November 2020. https://www.aihr.com/blog/addie-model/.

 

 

---

[1] ‘Museum Education and Learning’.

[2] Falk and Dierking, Learning from Museums.

[3] ‘Museums Are Places for Learning’.

[4] ‘Hun ønsker seg et statusløft for formidling ved museene. Møt Line Engen ved Nasjonalmuseet.’

[5] Australia, ‘Understanding Museums - The Museum Education Mix’.

[6] Hamburg, ‘Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo appoints Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) and Tamschick Media+Space (TMS) for the design and realisation of museum’.

[7] ‘Tone Hansen vil styrke den kommersielle profilen ved Munchmuseet’.

[8] Md Nor and Abdul Razak, ‘Interactive Design in Enhancing User Experience in Museum’.

[9] Kurt, ‘ADDIE Model’.

[10] Vulpen, ‘The ADDIE Model for Instructional Design Explained’.

[11] Bugg, ‘Playing with Light’.

[12] Lambert, ‘The Games People Play: A Case Study’.

[13] ‘Special Report Video Games’.