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Good Morning Mr. Howarth,
Thank you very much for your posting (below)!
Those of us, who are long in the tooth in this business, know this already -- anecdotally. I for one, remembers discussing this same issue with my museum colleagues back in the mid-Bronze Age (1960s).
It all gets back to my belief that exhibits are most successful at placing the visitor in the affective domain and not as successful at placing the visitor in the cognitive domain. For more about all of this affective, cognitive, psychomotor stuff please see, "Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational goals" (1956) as revised (a.k.a. Bloom's Taxonomy). The "fringes" of Bloom's Taxonomy continue to be twisted, plaited, and braided, according to the latest theoretical lenses to be focused on this subject.... but, even after half a century its core concepts still hold true when applied to museum exhibits, and their use..... and misuse.
Best Wishes for Success,
Wesley
p.s. If exhibits were successful at putting the visitor (read: consumer) in the cognitive domain.... then KAPLAN's tutoring service would be building exhibits and getting rid of their tutors. Nicht wahr?
Wesley S. Creel
Administrator of Programs
Pink Palace Family of Museums
3050 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38111
www.memphismuseums.org
Office 901.636.2370 new telephone number
FAX 901.636.2391 new FAX number
Please consider including the Pink Palace Family of Museums in your charitable giving plans
along with your other charitable interests.
Please visit all our great facilities as well as our website: www.memphismuseums.org Our mission: The Pink Palace Family of Museums inspires people to learn how history.science, technology and nature shape the mid-South. Through rich collections, thought-provoking exhibitions, and engaging programs, we encourage our diverse community to reflect on the past, understand the present, and influence the future
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chuck Howarth
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011 6:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Exhibit evaluation in Dimensions magazine
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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One reason evaluation in museums is so challenging is the diversity of our audiences. Most science center mission statements that I have seen include language such as "serving the broadest possible audience...". I can't think off hand of any other industry that makes that claim. Most are focused on a particular age or demographic. Take for example Barbara Flagg's comments about formative evaluation for Sesame Street. The audience for that show is sharply defined and very narrow, making it much easier to state and measure learning outcomes.
Attendance at science centers, by contrast, is extremely varied -a fifth grade class studying the laws of motion, a group of parents with toddlers, adults who are interested in art, science, whatever... professional scientists and engineers, and so on and so on. All of them use the same set of exhibits, but they have widely varying agendas. What learning outcomes could we propose that capture that enormous range? The answer is that we can't, unless we segment the audience: one set of objectives for the fifth graders, another for the toddlers, still others for adults. Seems to me that there is no way to measure impact on an average visitor because there ARE no average visitors. The best we can do is measure impacts on subsets of visitors.
Or put another way, imagine an exhibit that powerfully effects 10% of the audience in measurable ways, but is of little interest to the other 90%. Is that exhibit successful? Or unsuccessful? Do all exhibits need to work for a majority, or is it o.k. to have some that are targeted? And what are the implications for evaluation?
Chuck Howarth, Vice President
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G Y R O S C O P E I N C
283 Fourth Street, Suite 201
Oakland, CA 94607
tele: 510.986.0111
web: www.gyroscopeinc.com
blog: http://museums-now.blogspot.com
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
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