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Dear Eric,

 

A few thoughts on your email....

 

I can certainly send you a few pieces that include data on decision
making in families regarding museum visits and the role of children in
the family museum visit. I also expect a number of colleagues here at
the Institute could weigh in on creating surveys for young museum
visitors - although off the top of my head, many of the projects were
specific to a program, rather than general museum visits. We can talk
more about that if you'd like, Eric.

 

Otherwise, some people to contact about interviewing young children
about family visits to museums would be:

 

- Lorrie Beaumont, Selinda & Assoc. [[log in to unmask]] has some
really useful pieces on interviewing young children about museum visits.

 

- David Anderson & Barbara Piscitelli did some great work with young
children - it is especially useful if you want to use drawings as a
technique.  A lot of their work is available at the QUT Museums
Collaborative web site:
http://eab.ed.qut.edu.au/activities/projects/museum/

It would also be worth emailing David Anderson, now at the University of
British Columbia [[log in to unmask]]

  Anderson, D., Piscitelli, B., Weier, K., Everett, M., & Tayler, C.
(2002). Children's museum experiences: Identifying powerful mediators of
learning. Curator, 45(3), 213-231.

  Piscitelli, B. & Anderson, D., (2001). Young children's perspectives
of museums settings and experiences. Museum Management and Curatorship.
19(3), 269-282

  Piscitelli, B. & Anderson, D., (2000). Young children's learning in
museum settings. Visitor Studies, 3(3), 3-10.

 

- Gloria Needleman [[log in to unmask]], I read some of her doctoral
work and she had some very explicit protocols about interviewing young
children.

 

- You should also take a look at the studies going on at UPCLOSE as I
think a number of the researchers there could comment on the role of
children in the decision making process as well as data collection
issues.  http://upclose.lrdc.pitt.edu/index.html

 

There are certainly other people doing work in this area - but these are
good people to talk with to start. 

- Kirsten

 

*******************************************

Kirsten Ellenbogen

Institute for Learning Innovation

166 West Street, Annapolis, MD 21401

Phone: 410-268-5149    Fax: 410-268-2179

www.ilinet.org <http://www.ilinet.org/> 

 

-----Original Message-----
Hello All:

 

Has anyone surveyed young visitors (like ages 5-12) about general
experiential aspects of their museum visit?  What they liked best, if
they liked the food, anything that made them particularly happy or
unhappy, comfortable or uncomfortable?

 

On a related note, is there any research about the decision making in
families related to museum going?  Who are the principal decision
makers?  What is the impact of kids in family decision making?  If it
appears that kids are influential  (as they are, anecdotally, in my
family), then what does that imply for the marketing program?

 

Finally, is anyone using those kind of automated visitor response kiosks
to get feedback about the quality of the visitor experience?

 

See you in San Jose!

 

 

Eric Siegel

Director of Planning

   & Program Development

Connections Project Director

New York Hall of Science

47-01 111th Street

Queens, NY 11368

[log in to unmask]

www.nyscience.org

 


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