Pierroux, P., Knutson, K., & Crowley, K., (2021) Informal Learning in Museums

As museums have become comfortable embracing a learning mission, they have also become more common locations for learning research. In this chapter, we explore new research findings and note what they suggest about how to design museum experiences to support more powerful learning. We also hope this chapter might inspire a new generation of learning scientists to use museums as laboratories for their work. Museums are filled with complex, rich, and fascinating learning problems. They are sometimes referred to as “free choice” learning settings, because people are guided by their own interests, goals, or knowledge. As they learn, visitors engage with objects, signs, tools, discourse, and new technologies. And the topics that people learn about are diverse, including all aspects of art, science, history, geography, culture, and more. Museums are public and social places of learning, where it is easy to find learning happening with families or peer groups who need to collectively negotiate how to move through the museum, decide what to do at each exhibit, and figure out how to make sense of what they encounter. Museums also provide a wide range of diverse examples of designs to support learning for audiences ranging from the youngest children to the oldest adults. Because of these features, museums are learning environments that expand our existing definitions of learning; they require learning scientists to account for phenomena that are very different from formal, in-school learning.