JISCMail - GEM Archives

I have collected quite a bit of literature on different ways of evaluating learning in museum settings. Maybe you can get in touch with me off list and tell me exactly what you are trying to find out and I can go through what I have.

2. From Dirk vom Lehn [[log in to unmask]]

with regard to your question it is always worthwhile checking out the website of the Museum Learning Collaborative and the annotated bibliography available on their site.

http://mlc.lrdc.pitt.edu/scripts/search_form.asp

3. From Vivien Golding [[log in to unmask]]

I caught a glimpse of a National Portrait Gallery evaluation completed by Mary Priest which was very impressive.

4. From Peter Clarke [[log in to unmask]]

a. The SWMC Museum Learning Initiative website http://www.swmuseums.httpmedia.co.uk/development_programmes/MLI/muslin.htm has a section on evaluation that may be useful.

b. Just some rambling thoughts...I have been pondering 'learning outcomes' due to the increasing number of people using the term instead of 'learning objectives'. I am not sure if I know what a learning outcome is - I can define a simple 'outcome', but it belongs to the learner as something they do, a change, a new view etc. It is the result of learning but it is not a definition of a new bit of knowledge, skill, atitude etc. which is what educators call objectives as part of their planning. Objectives can include 'intended outcomes' I suppose. Actual outcomes are time-related and impossibly difficult to measure - although they can be described when they occur. I suppose if one intended that a learner would (say) 'show an increased interest in a subject', then you could ask them to rate the increase? Or an outcome could be 'visit the museum again within a set time frame' and one could record that? But is that a 'learning' outcome? What would a learning outcome actually be? If it is attached to the idea of an increase in knowledge, then the only way to describe it is via a test (eg How many wives did Henry VIII have?). I don't think we want that in museums.

c. This is an extract (see below) from Centre for Learning Innovation (Falk & Dierking) in case it is of use.

The Effect of Visitor's Agenda on Museum Learning, John H. Falk, Ph.D., Theano Moussouri, Ph.D., Douglas Coulson, Ph.D. Institute for Learning Innovation Annapolis, MD

It has been argued that visitors' previsit "agendas" directly influence visits. This study attempted to directly test the effects of different museum visit agendas on visitor learning. Two new tools were developed for this purpose: 1) a tool for measuring visitor agendas; and 2) a tool for measuring visitor learning (Personal Meaning Mapping). Visitor agenda was defined as having two dimensions: motivations and strategies. Personal Meaning Mapping is a Constructivist approach which measures change in understanding along four semi-independent dimensions: extent, breadth, depth and mastery. The study looked at forty randomly selected adults visiting the National Museum of Natural History's newly installed Geology, Gems and Minerals exhibition. Visitor agendas did significantly impact how, what and how much someone learned. Results are discussed in terms of the current debate about "education" vs. "entertainment."

Full study published in Curator: The Museum Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2, June 1998, pp. 106-120.

5. From Kate Pontin [log in to unmask]

This all depends on what you want to evaluate for - specific learning of facts or more varied things like empathy etc. There are many ways to assess - usually with something like pre and post tests which are very time consuming . Otherwise you can just do a post test but you do not know what their previous knowledge was. One can interview, ask for comments on a card etc. I can offer more advice if you let me have more info on what types of outcomes you want to assess. In an informal visit one also ought to be aware that visitors may learn other things that you have not planned for and may not want to learn about what you have planned for!

Robin Clutterbuck

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