Introduction
Changes
have occurred in the ways science educators and researchers view the learning
that occurs in, and emerges from, experiences in informal contexts such
as museums, science centres, botanic gardens, and aquariumsi.
Prior to the 1980s, there was a search for evidence and a wide spread lack
of acceptance that "real learning" occurred in such contexts. Rather, "real
learning" was the seen as the sole domain of the classroom and teacher.
There are several reasons for this view. First, prior to the 1980s there
was not a body of systematic research on informal learning comparable to
the body of research on school-based learning. Second, many of the studies
conducted in informal contexts merely or considered how learning was effected
by differential interventions (such as a change in exhibit format), rather
than defining the nature of such learning. The studies characteristically
used multiple choice tests and comparative research designs to demonstrate
statistically significant effects, rather than the more qualitative measures
of learning employed in investigations today. Third, studies of that time
naturally adopted perspectives on learning different from those broadly
held today. In many of the studies prior to the 1990s, researchers saw learning
as the acquisition of facts and information, rather than the gradual, incremental,
and assimilative growth in knowledge interpreted in the light of prior knowledge
and understanding, that typifies contemporary constructivist views of learning.
i Museums, science
centres, botanic gardens, and aquariums are commonly referred to as museum
settings.
