Scaffolding refers to support that is tailored to the learner's current understanding and eventually "faded" as the learner demonstrates understanding. Though abundant research exists about scaffolding implementations and outcomes, few studies discuss the process of fading. Furthermore, studies about fading are often set in classrooms as opposed to informal learning environments such as science museums. Given the promise of scaffolding as an approach for supporting learning in museums, and fading's essential role in scaffolding, additional research about fading in museums is warranted. In response, I provide two cases of fading observed as "transfer of responsibility" for learning within family conversations. Drawn from a larger study about scaffolding in museums, these cases illustrate how young museum visitors can initiate fading organically during a pop-up science museum program, particularly through repetition of interactive activities and transition of roles. These findings indicate that designed learning experiences in science museums should include repetition to allow children to transfer responsibility for learning to themselves and, if possible, change roles (i.e. from learner to facilitator) to promote fading.
Objects have long played a vital role in shaping human history and interaction with the world. Those held in museums are preserved and interpreted for the public. Museum strategies, such as object-based learning (OBL), foster a deeper understanding of collections among visitors. Grounded in constructivist and experiential learning theories, this study presents the results of an online OBL activity that explores how digital engagement with museum objects can foster creativity, reflection, and learning among adult audiences. Forty adult participants joined the online OBL activity individually, engaged virtually with one ceramic figure from the Tang dynasty, and reflected on their learning experience. Findings show that interpretive processes of participants aligned with constructivist learning models: they built on prior knowledge, moved from description to inquiry, and developed their own ideas through observation and reflection. Results show how online OBL can connect adults with museum collections, increase access, and develop interpretive skills.
Museum-situated cognition and learning is a well-established educational intervention; however, its targeted application in sex education within conservative cultural contexts remains underexplored. Grounded in situated cognition and learning theory, this case study examines the teaching mechanisms of a private sexology museum in Central China. Utilizing questionnaires and interviews with 320 university students, we analyzed the impact of a three-hour structured field trip compared to traditional lecture-based instruction of sex education. The findings indicate that the museum's immersive spatiotemporal context and interactive elements create essential cognitive pathways. Once established, these pathways activate educational intentionality and stimulate self-constructive learning, thereby optimizing participants' cognition and behavior. This study proposes a mechanism model, demonstrating that museum interventions are not merely supplementary but constitute critical spatial and cultural interventions necessary for effective sex education in regions with traditional cultural constraints.
Teaching via museum artifacts and experiences is an effective way to add depth to learning. Moreover, traveling exhibitions have the potential to narrow the experience gap of students with different socioeconomic backgrounds and/or from remote regions and to introduce museums' learning resources to schools. However, it remains unclear how to integrate traveling exhibitions meaningfully into classroom curricula. We aimed to explore the aspects that support or hinder the use of traveling exhibitions in schools as educational resources. We present a case study from Estonia's Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom, where a traveling exhibition with accompanying teaching materials was created and sent to 11 schools in 2022. We acted as practitioner-researchers, collecting field notes and interviewing four schoolteachers and two museum professionals. We conclude that if the aim is to integrate exhibitions into students' everyday learning, good-quality, curricula-related teaching resources and personalized communication are crucial. However, thoughtful planning and a sustainable approach to partners' intellectual input, funding, logistics, and technical details are also needed. Also, differences in school cultures and individual teachers' agency should be considered to ensure students' equal access to this method of museum education.
Museums are often viewed as a natural fit for older visitors interested in cognitive health and lifelong learning; however, adults aged 60 and older are the least likely of any age group to visit museums. As a result, many North American museums - particularly cultural heritage institutions with limited creative arts programming - struggle to engage and serve this population. To address this gap, this study employed a participatory action research approach grounded in adult learning theory to examine how community engagement can lead to more meaningful experiences for older learners. Six volunteers, 55 years and older, participated in four workshops facilitated by a museum educator to co-develop an outreach program for seniors. Findings from interviews and observations revealed multiple benefits for participants, including new knowledge and skills, cognitive stimulation, transformative learning, social interaction, a stronger sense of community and identity, and deeper connections to the museum. These outcomes highlight the value of collaborating with older adults and the potential of program co-creation as an effective learning and engagement strategy for this audience.
This study presents the development of a collaboratively generated collection of museum learning experiences intended to reflect core principles of museum education across institutional types. Drawing on literature in constructivist, experiential, and sociocultural learning theory, the authors employed a modified Delphi method with a national panel of 34 museum educators representing diverse museum contexts. Across three iterative survey rounds, panelists refined and consolidated an initial list of 33 learning experiences into a final collection of 17, organized by degree of visitor agency: museum-directed experiences, visitor-initiated exploration, visitor-generated contribution, and community or relational engagement. Findings indicate strong consensus regarding the value of a shared framework to support program design, reflection, benchmarking, and professional development. By translating broad theoretical constructs into a practical taxonomy grounded in field expertise, this study offers a common language for articulating museum learning and provides a foundation for future research, collaboration, and adaptation across varied museum settings.
Museums have been increasingly empowered with multiple responsibilities to support meaningful social works around care and social engagement, extending beyond the traditional collection and exhibition roles. There is a growing need for museums to inspire care and healing, support well-being awareness, and contribute meaningfully to social life. University-affiliated museums play important roles in connecting communities, bridging academic research and public engagement, advocating socially concerned topics, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. This article discusses how a university-affiliated museum positions care-centered programming at the heart of its programs, and creates meaningful museum educational experiences through intentional interdisciplinary collaborations. By applying third place theory to the collaborations between the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art and UNLV Jean Nidetch Care Center, this article aims to analyze how shared program authorities, flexible facilitations, accessible program design, and care-focused collaboration transformed the museum into a supportive third place. Museum educators will learn how to collaborate ethically with on-campus care-centered departments to create an inclusive and care-centered environment.
Guided tours are an established part of photography exhibitions, but little is known about how visitors use them, what they expect from them, and which formats they find helpful. This exploratory online survey examined 461 respondents, including 345 participants who reported attending guided tours in exhibitions of artistic photography at least once. The findings show that guided tours are not used regularly by all visitors, but they are evaluated positively by those who attend them. Visitors especially value background information on the works, insights into photographers' biographies, distinctive stories, and information on artistic techniques. They are less interested in guided tours as primarily social events. The study identifies three visitor profiles: curious art explorers, reserved art skeptics, and reflective art experts. These profiles suggest that guided tours can serve different educational functions, including initial access, focused orientation, and deeper interpretive engagement. For museum educators and exhibition teams, the findings support compact, context-rich, and target-group-sensitive guided tours that combine selected works, clear contextual framing, and opportunities for dialogue.
Despite sustained institutional investment in adult programming, the empirical basis for adult learning in museums remains poorly mapped. This scoping review systematically charts peer-reviewed, indexed research on the subject, following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Screening 531 records from Scopus and Web of Science yielded 57 eligible empirical articles published between 1999 and 2025. Analysis reveals four principal thematic clusters: (1) learning outcomes (n = 22), (2) social role of museums (n = 19), (3) learning environment (n = 12), and (4) inclusion and accessibility (n = 11). Publication volume increased markedly after 2014, accompanied by greater thematic and geographic diversity, though Anglophone contexts account for 58% of the sample. Qualitative approaches predominate (n = 33); however, critical appraisal indicates that quantitative and mixed-methods studies achieve more consistent methodological rigor. Adult learners are most commonly treated as an undifferentiated population, with finer-grained segmentation by motivation, prior experience, or learning trajectory remaining rare. The mechanisms through which learning unfolds during museum visits, and how these vary across individuals and contexts, are comparatively neglected. We identify these process-level questions as the most consequential gap for future research.
At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, students in an art education course design and lead peer-led experiences at Krannert Art Museum for peers in an introductory art course. The program has run for three annual cycles, each with a new cohort of ARTE 260 student facilitators. The present study draws on survey data and written reflections collected during Spring 2026. Student facilitators described a recurring pattern: most entered the experience positioned as teachers, then found greater effectiveness once stepping into a facilitator role. The data suggest that peer-led experiences at university art museums function as sites where pre-service art educators begin to form professional identities and where first-year students build personal connections to museum collections.
Over the past decades, museums have increasingly repositioned themselves as socially responsive learning environments, prompting renewed attention to early childhood audiences. While research has documented preschool children's embodied and multisensory engagement in museum settings, fewer studies have examined structured, theory-informed, multi-session programming within thematic technology museums. This qualitative case study investigates a five-session summer workshop series implemented at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil (MEEL) in Sparta, Greece. Sixty preschool children (ages 3-6.5) participated across the sessions. Data was collected through 15 h of participatory observation, child-produced artifacts, and 60 written or drawn evaluation responses. Thematic analysis was conducted using socio-constructivist theory, object-based learning, and the Generic Learning Outcomes (GLOs) framework as interpretive lenses. Findings indicate that process-oriented exhibition design, combined with multisensory and creative activities, fostered embodied engagement and curiosity, collaborative meaning-making, emotional attachment, and interdisciplinary connections. The study contributes empirical evidence regarding the evaluation of preschool museum programming in thematic museums and highlights the pedagogical potential of process-oriented museums for integrative early childhood learning.
Despite growing interest in program evaluation within art museums, existing studies have yet to examine evaluative practices and capacities in relation to the broader organizational and extramural conditions shaping their development and enactment across a national museum sector. This paper addresses this gap by presenting findings from a national landscape study of evaluation practices and capacities across Canada's largest publicly funded art museums. Guided by a sector-specific conceptual framework, the study draws on interviews with practitioners responsible for, engaged in, or knowledgeable about evaluation within their institutions. Overall, the interview findings reveal uneven but developing capacity across the sector, with practitioners generally better equipped to use evaluation findings and engage in informal, output-oriented formative inquiry than to independently design and carry out systematic, outcome-oriented studies. The findings further demonstrate that evaluative practices and capacities were influenced not only by practitioner expertise, but also by broader organizational and extramural conditions, including leadership backing, institutional culture, accountability expectations, and the availability of resources and supports. Taken together, the study contributes new empirical insight into how program evaluation is enacted across a national art museum sector and offers transferable implications for strengthening evaluation capacity within museums and related informal learning settings.
