ABSTRACT
In the museum and gallery world, the three words “learning,” “interpretation” and “education” are often used in the same context; yet, provocatively, I would say that in my experience they are quite regularly, and somewhat lazily, used interchangeably. Sometimes, when misunderstandings arise as a result of this, the issue is glossed over by being dismissed with comments such as “oh, it's just semantics.” Yet increasingly, I feel that the issue should not be dismissed. Rather than looking at the application of the notion of designing interpretation for learning, this chapter considers and explores the underlying assumptions of these concepts for people working in museums, and queries, what is the nature of the relationship between interpretation and learning, as understood by those who work on exhibition development and design?
