Research Of Learning Design In Museum Setting

The research of Informal learning has been a new strands emerging from the field of learning sciences in recent years. The designed settings such as museum and science center are the ideal place for researchers to study informal learning. However, the research on museum learning is still in the beginning stages of development. Museums are not just the place to store and exhibit. They provide people a unique learning environment. The main purpose of this research is to investigate how to design the museum setting in order to fully take advantage of its educational potential. To achieve this purpose, the dissertation carried out the following research that consisted of six chapters.In the first chapter, this research traces the origin of the museum and the history of museum learning studies. And then discus the current status of museum practice and research.The second chapter illustrates characteristics of museum learning based on the comparison of formal and informal learning.The third chapter analysis the relationship between people and environment from the perspective of ecological psychology and claimed that learning affordance as the theoretical foundation of this research. The author constructed the museum learning model based on the theory of learning affordance.Chapter Four turn to the design research of museum worksheet as the medium of museum learning. After review the research and case studies of worksheet, Researcher designs the worksheet for Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and implements three rounds iterative studies and finally product the worksheet for kids and the parents’guide. Chapter Five conducts the quasi-experiment study which intends to capture the effective of worksheet and parents’guide on family learning in museum setting. The qualitative and quantitative data are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the learning interventions.The dissertation ends in Chapter Six with conclusions, contributions and some comments on future researches.