ABSTRACT

Museums are a place of experiential and inquiry learning for young children. We know that children’s experiences at museums can provide novel opportunities to interact with rare artefacts, can extend concepts explored in early childhood curricula and encourage knowledge sharing with families. Research on the efficacy or outcomes of museum programs for young children has typically documented the resources and focus of learning programs, observed children’s engagement with programs and artefacts, and surveyed participants about their experience of being at the museum. We know less, however, about facilitator perspectives – both museum facilitators and early childhood teachers – on the elements of museum programs that reinforce young children’s learning. This paper reports on interviews with facilitators and finds concurrent commentary on the importance of physical access, museum facilitator experience, expectations, children’s interests, interactions with children, and interaction with artefacts. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of outreach programs and excursion museum programs for young children.

摘要

博物馆是幼儿体验和探究学习的场所。我们知道，儿童在博物馆的经历可以提供与稀有文物互动的新机会，可以扩展幼儿课程中探索的概念，并鼓励与家人分享知识。对幼儿博物馆项目的效果或结果的研究通常记录了学习项目的资源和重点，观察了儿童对项目和文物的参与，并调查了参与者关于他们在博物馆的经历。然而，对于促进幼儿学习的博物馆项目要素，我们对促进者的观点知之甚少——包括博物馆促进者和幼儿教师。本文报道了对主持人的采访，并发现了有关物理访问的重要性、博物馆主持人的经验、期望、儿童的兴趣、与儿童的互动以及与人工制品的互动的同时评论。这些发现对幼儿外展计划和游览博物馆计划的设计和实施具有重要意义。