ABSTRACT
The development of the Framework for Assessing Excellence in Exhibitions from a Visitor-centered Perspective proceeded on the premise that certain core conditions in exhibitions will heighten the opportunity for learning to take place. This chapter provides citations of research, theory, practice, and opinion from a variety of disciplines supporting the links between the four Criteria and the process of personal learning.
I think it would be useful for a lot of people to know how you’ve arrived at these particular categories. These aren’t things that are just your opinion, what you think are important. There’s really a whole body of research that shows just how important these characteristics are in an exhibition to make learning happen.
Dan Spock Museum exhibitions are almost universally seen as places where informal learning takes place. Museums obtain public and private funding on the premise that they are reaching hundreds of thousands of people yearly with their educational messages. Yet learning as 111a result of exhibitions has been an extremely challenging process to study and has not been demonstrated in such a way as to produce generalizations about cause and effect.