In principle, in practice: Perspectives on a decade of museum learning research (1994-2004)

Abstract

National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Learning Innovation (the Institute) hosted a national conference-Public Institutions for Personal Learning: Establishing a Long-Term Research Agenda.The goal was to discuss the nature of museum learning and to formulate a research agenda to investigate the long-term impact of visits to museums, broadly defined.This effort served as a catalyst for numerous museum learning research endeavors, stimulated dozens of master's theses and doctoral dissertations, and continues to guide research and theory in the field.Public Institutions for Personal Learning drew upon expertise outside the informal (freechoice) science education community, inviting researchers from a variety of relevant social science disciplines to reflect upon the complex nature of museum learning.Together with a group of national leaders including practitioners, policy makers, and grant makers, they discussed how to best foster meaningful research in this area and to build a foundation which would support and advance theoretical understandings of learning from museums (Falk & Dierking, 1995).Nearly a decade later, there is a growing community of experts on learning in and from museums who work within this community and an increasing body of research focused in this arena.This group of researchers has identified important issues related to the topic of learning from museums, established theoretical foundations for understanding learning, and begun to build a body of knowledge about the nature of such learning.Since a decade has passed, we felt it was time to step back and reflect upon what has been learned by this most recent research.Again with support from the NSF, the In Principle, In Practice Learning Innovation Initiative has been funded to allow the field to thoughtfully reflect upon these findings and collaboratively develop frameworks for improving practice, evaluation, and future learning research efforts in the museum community.An important aspect of this initiative is this special supplement of Science Education.These "what do we currently know" papers will serve to frame the reflection and discussion at a two-day conference, bringing together diverse perspectives from prominent practitioners, evaluators, researchers, and policy and grant makers.In addition, a post-conference White Paper and a book summarizing discussions will be developed.The major goal of the In Principle, In Practice Learning Innovation Initiative is to establish credible, ambitious, and realistic frameworks for practice, which emanate from a