ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of motivation in informal learning, partly as a complement to the other approaches to informal learning in these two special issues and partly because of the importance of examining the causes and outcomes of learning wherever it occurs. It suggests that motivation can be analyzed as "situated" in a manner that is analogous to contemporary social-contextual views of learning. Many accounts of learning note that people learn best when they actively manipulate the information to be learned and when that information builds on previous knowledge. "Motivated to learn" may not adequately characterize the actions of all visitors, though, because it suggests that learning is limited to acquiring new information. When students have opportunities to choose what they learn and how they demonstrate their mastery, they expend more effort learning the material. Museum visitors have many kinds of choices, but perhaps the most important concerns their goal orientation.
