Investigating parent attitudes from the perspective of learning experiences in a museum

ABSTRACT

Museums are important locations providing cognitive resources to children in various subjects. Literature suggests that parent–child interaction in the museum differs across cultures. Two of the main reasons for this are the overall attitude towards the child and the autonomy provided. The data reveals that the most decisive factor was parents’ attitudes towards the autonomy of the child. Research primarily focuses on the structure of parent–child interaction in Turkey in the context of museums, and how often scaffolding strategies are used by parents. It also examines how using these strategies differ in terms of parental attitudes toward children and their caretakers as well as their own individual children. The person selecting the object to talk about (mother-father–child) during the interaction process was accepted as an indicator of autonomy support, and how the scaffolding strategies differed correspondingly was investigated. Parents mostly used strategies of mobilization/maintenance and detailed explanation.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent attitudes
• museum
• autonomy
• scaffolding strategy
• interaction
• learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sıla Bayındır

Sıla Bayındır has been working on informal education field for years. She holds a master's degree in Educational Psychology. She currently is working on master's degree in Museum Education. Her fields are learning in museum, parent-child imteraction and culture's impact on learning. She has done lessons for kids and she has been a part of the research team.

Eylem Gökçe Cengiz

Eylem Gökçe Cengiz has a doctorate on Educational Psychology. She gives lectures on Educational Psychology and Developmental Psychology. She has been a part of projects such as “Syrian Children's Integration to Education” and “Life Standards of Children Working in Seasonal Agriculture”. She is currently working as assistant manager in Ankara University Child Culture Research and Application Center, as well as doing researchs on Learning in Museum, Parent and Child Interaction and Teachers' Role in Museum Education in its subsidiary, Toy Museum.