“This is a Learning Opportunity”: How Parent–Child Interactions and Exhibit Design Foster the Museum Learning of Prior-to-School Aged Children

Abstract

Recent research indicates that museums hold great potential for children’s engagement and learning. To date, most research has either focused on school-aged children or young children’s independent learning engagement and, as a result, little research has investigated how museum spaces may foster and enhance the interactive learning of families with prior-to-school-age children. The current study sought to investigate which features of museum spaces might promote rich learning conversations within such families when visiting three metropolitan museums. Applying an interpretivist lens on video data generated from child and parent videos, and analyzing postvisit interview data, this study found shared attention, questioning, technical vocabulary, and cognitive connections featured in the learning conversations in such spaces. Further, intricate detail, different perspectives, interactivity and multimodality were significant exhibit design features that appeared to promote such learning conversations. Implications for exhibit design are discussed in relation to the undergirding concept of sustained shared thinking.

Funding

This research was funded by a Macquarie University Enterprise Partnership Grant in collaboration with the Australian National Maritime Museum, Museums Victoria, and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. We would like to acknowledge and thank the museum staff, the parents, and the children who made this project possible.

Disclosure statement

There is no potential conflict of interest.

Ethical statement

The study reported in this manuscript was approved by the Macquarie University Human Research Ethics Committee.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sheila Degotardi

Sheila Degotardi is an Associate Professor in early childhood education at the Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University. Sheila’s research specializes in processes of learning and teaching with prior-to-school aged children, with a particular focus on the importance of interactions and inter-relatedness. Her work examined the nature and learning potential of the everyday interactions that occur between young children, their caregivers peers and educators. Address correspondence to: Sheila Degotardi, 389, 29 Wally’s Walk, Macquarie University, NSW, 2109, Australia. E-mail: [email protected].

Kelly Johnston

Kelly Johnston is a lecturer with the Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research explores STEM in the early years, with a specific focus on integration of technology in play-based early learning curricula, as well as mathematical thinking and learning of very young children.

Helen Little

Helen Little is a Senior Lecturer in early childhood education in the Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University where she teaches on child development and outdoor learning units. Prior to this she was an early childhood teacher with experience teaching in preschools and primary schools in Sydney. Her research focuses on the association between characteristics of the physical and social environment, teaching practices and children's opportunities for outdoor play and risk-taking in play.

Yeshe Colliver

Yeshe Colliver is a Lecturer at the Department of Educational Studies, Macquarie University. He has worked in early childhood education and care settings for nearly a decade in multiple cities across the world. Through this work, he has acquired an interest in natural learning that we have evolved (e.g., the types we needed in Indigenous cultures). His research examines children’s play-based learning and culturally sensitive approaches to young children’s learning.

Fay Hadley

Fay Hadley is a Senior Lecturer who specializes in leadership in early childhood education, working with families and professional experience. Her areas of research examine leadership in early childhood education and partnerships. This includes investigating mentoring, professional learning and career pathways for early childhood teachers. She also researches in partnerships with diverse families in educational settings and the impacts this has on outcomes for children.