Abstract
This publication is ambitious, focussed on science education situations; it also looks at the broader implications of how research in informal settings can inform an understanding of learning in general. While the concern of the content is with the ‘visitor’ experience to centres of science learning, such as museums, much of what is discussed and presented will be of interest to those working in education where understanding the learning experience is so important.
Researching the area of learning in ‘unusual places’ is a relatively new field for research to focus on, and therefore more than welcome. Learners usually learn through a complex mix of direct experience, instruction and that difficult to unravel element, synthesis through community experience. This book looks closely at the research conclusions informing our understanding of the community learning experience.
Museum educators will have to give up (in the light of research by Ash and Lombana’s description of successful visitor learning experiences) the belief that there is: … a correct way for visitors to use the exhibits, a way that focuses entirely on content and, supposedly, that reflects the intentions of the exhibits’ designers. These beliefs often conflict with a visiting family’s ‘goal of wanting to create its own learning experience’. The reality is that visitors’ learning goals and objectives are defined and redefined throughout the course of an activity. (Chapter 9: Epilogue, Steve Guberman, p.173)
Imagine what this idea of the learner ‘creating its own learning experience’ transferred to the classroom or school would mean.
There are good chapters and slight chapters as with any collection of papers and often the strengths and weaknesses of writing may well be perceived through the ignorance lenses of the reviewer; however, this collection of papers and reports is overwhelmingly interesting, provocative and above all useful for redefining appropriate teacher activity and enriching practice both within the classroom and out of the classroom. We may be ‘teaching’ the science of aquariums when the young visitor is learning about the potential careers that could be followed in the marine research or entertainment industries. Is it too obvious that I particularly enjoyed the case study in Chapter 4 (Reframing collaborations with informal science institutions, p.63) entitled ‘Connecting Aquarium and School’?