The physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits: Identification and categorization of pedagogically relevant concepts

Abstract

Many options are available to designers when creating museum exhibitions. One particular option that can be chosen is the inclusion of exhibits that can be touched and manipulated, a style of exhibit often referred to as hands-on or interactive (Adams and Moussouri, 2002). Within this subset of exhibits, designers also have a multitude of choices to make that can affect the experiences visitors will have. The goal of this study is to help the transfer of research findings about learning and hands-on interactive exhibits to designers so that more-informed choices may be made. With this goal in mind, the exhibits within three exhibitions at the Montreal Science Centre are examined from a pedagogical perspective. Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning (2000) is employed as a conceptual framework, and one of its contexts is specifically addressed. Since exhibition designers act upon the objects that form exhibits, and only have direct influence on their physical nature, the physical context of Falk and Dierking's model is chosen as a lens through which to investigate the exhibits. Emergent concepts from the physical context of those exhibits are collected and then categorized. To relate the emergent concepts to a pedagogical perspective, the categories are then associated to the pedagogical triangle (Houssaye, 1988; Moore, 1989), which allows them to be organised following the roles and interactions present in that model. This study, therefore, presents a structure and common language through which the physical context of hands-on interactive museum exhibits can be understood from a pedagogical perspective.