A qualitative exploratory study on museum educators’ perspective on children’s guided museum visits

Young Children's Engagement with Objects in Science Museums: A Rapid Evidence Assessment of Research

“…From the review literature, we identified the following ways in which adult-child talk supports children's learning in museums: to encourage young visitors to follow their own interests (Anderson et al, 2008;Della Croce et al, 2019); to model and explain new and technical vocabulary related to exhibits (Degotardi et al, 2019); to teach complex data science concepts and statistical learning through scaffolding, particularly when children gather data about museum objects of their choice (Letourneau et al, 2020) and when adults and children are actively engaged in co-enquiry (Marcus et al, 2018;Pagano et al, 2019); to scaffold child learning during hands-on activities, especially about 'simple cause-and-effect' relationships, concepts and processes and when it is clear to adult visitors what they can do to support children's learning (Puchner et al, 2001: 254).…”

“…Participatory research with children draws attention to how children value 'using their intellect and their senses (visual, kinesthetic, and auditory)' (Wong & Piscitelli, 2019: 425). Children's emotional, and multisensorial involvement promotes their deep engagement with objects, which in turn facilitates conceptual learning and recall (Della Croce et al, 2019;Hope, 2018;Kelly et al, 2006;Pagano et al, 2019;W€ ohrer & Harrasser, 2011). Joint adult-child sensory experiences often prompt exploratory talk about objects (Povis & Crowley, 2015) and sustained shared thinking (Degotardi et al, 2019).…”

“…23 further papers presented qualitative studies investigating how children and adults/peers construct learning together. Of these, 15 papers reported ethnographies and/or case studies of individual children or museum spaces (Anderson et al, 2002;Anderson et al, 2008;Carr et al, 2012;Carter, 2018;Degotardi et al, 2019;Della Croce et al, 2019;Dooley & Welch, 2014;Eckhoff, 2008;Faria et al, 2015;Letourneau et al, 2020;Lifschitz-Grant, 2018;McInnes & Elpidoforou, 2018;Piscitelli & Penfold, 2015;Rönkkö et al, 2016;Watson et al, 2002). Two papers reported action research with teachers and museum educators (Clarkin-Phillips et al, 2014.…”

“…Children are often motivated to find out about objects that relate to their own knowledge, experience and interests (Anderson et al, 2008;Carter, 2018;Faria et al, 2015;Hope, 2018). Making connections between museum objects and children's lives helps bridge the gap between new and existing knowledge (Della Croce et al, 2019;Dockett et al, 2011), and children often remember familiar objects after museum visits, such as rainbows or robots (Carter, 2018). Familiar objects can help children to grasp unfamiliar concepts, for example, using popular videos and storybooks to help children understand number and data science concepts (Letourneau et al, 2020) and to learn about the concept of taxidermy in STEM museums (Bunce, 2016a).…”