Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education (한국과학교육학회지)

The Korean Association for Science Education (한국과학교육학회)
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Understanding Visitor Learning in a Natural History Museum : A Case of Dyadic Discourses

  • Published : 2007.03.31
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Abstract

This study explores visitor learning in a natural history museum from the perspectives of situated learning. The purpose of this study is to understand how the visitors construct knowledge from museum experiences through dyadic discourses. The participants were two university students. They moved naturally through the exhibition with no predetermined path in a natural history museum in Korea. Data were collected in the form of audio-recorded dyadic discourses at and between exhibits and were transcribed. The transcription was coded using the conversation coding scheme, and categorized into specific learning types. The findings included (1) the characteristics of learning talks and (2) learning types created by dyadic discourses at and between exhibitions within learning contexts as museum learning experiences. Implications and future research related to visitor learning in informal learning settings were discussed based on the findings.

Keywords

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