Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes special report study entitled: Environmental strategies of ar chitecture in Hong Kong. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes special report study entitled : Environmental strategies of ar chitecture in Hong Kong. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes one special report study. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

The focus of this dissertation is my investigation into how primary school teachers can be guided to provide effective conditions for student learning on teacher-led school excursions to museums. The dissertation follows my learning journey, beginning with my entering experiences as a teacher, museum educator and teacher educator and then following stages of literature search, questions, action and reflection. The research design has affinity with action research and utilises an assemblage of methodologies which are empathetic with the study itself, principally observations and interviews. My thesis is that a framework based on strategies which reflect informal learning behaviours of family groups, learner-centred teaching approaches, and meaningful integration of school and museum studies, can create favourable conditions for student learning on excursions. Further, with minimal professional development, classroom teachers can implement such a framework. The first of three field studies tested my understandings about current practices on teacher-led school excursions to museums. Observations of 12 school excursions in Sydney, Australia, revealed a strong teacher orientation toward task completion rather than learning, and underlined the need to search for an alternative approach. Following a literature search on school visits to museums, social constructivist learning and teaching, and family visits, a School-Museum Learning Framework (SMLF) was designed. The SMLF was trialed in the second field study in which I was the principal teacher as well as researcher, working with a Year 5/6 class. The most significant finding was the students' recognition and declaration of their own learning in an environment in which they had choice and ownership of their learning. Consideration of the nature and measurement of learning in informal settings led to a tentative tool for indicating engagement in learning processes. In my third field study I investigated the broader application of the SMLF in four trials involving seven teachers. The teachers participated in a one-day professional development seminar and then conducted their own school-museum programs. The results showed the SMLF to be robust under a range of circumstances. My findings from the trials led to a refined flexible framework: School-Museum Integrated Learning Experiences in Science, which is based on three Guiding Principles: integration of school and museum learning; provision of conditions for self-directed learning and facilitation of learning strategies appropriate to the setting. The findings from this research have significance for students, teachers, teacher educators and museum educators.

In 1999, the Chinese Academy of Sciences realized that there was a need for a better public understanding of science. For the public to have better accessibility and comprehension of China's significance to the world, the Computer Network Information Center (CNIC), under the direction of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, combined resources from thousands of experts across the world to develop online science exhibits housed within the Virtual Science Museum of China. Through an analysis of historical documents, this descriptive dissertation presents a research project that explores a dimension of the development of the Giant Panda Exhibit. This study takes the reader on a journey, first to China and then to a classroom within the United States, in order to answer the following questions: (1) What is the process of the development of a virtual science exhibit; and, (2) What role do public audiences play in the design and implementation of virtual science museums? The creation of a virtual science museum exhibition is a process that is not completed with just the building and design, but must incorporate feedback from public audiences who utilize the exhibit. To meet the needs of the museum visitors, the designers at CNIC took a user-centered approach and solicited feedback from six survey groups. To design a museum that would facilitate a cultural exchange of scientific information, the CNIC looked at the following categories: visitor insights, the usability of the technology, the educational effectiveness of the museum exhibit, and the cultural nuances that existed between students in China and in the United States. The findings of this study illustrate that the objectives of museum designers may not necessarily reflect the needs of the visitors and confirm previous research studies which indicate that museum exhibits need a more constructivist approach that fully engages the visitor in an interactive, media-rich environment. Even though the world has moved forwards with digital technology, classroom instruction in both China and in the United States continues to reflect traditional teaching methods. Students were shown to have a lack of experience with the Internet in classrooms and difficulty in scientific comprehension when using the virtual science museum--showing a separation between classroom technology and learning. Students showed a greater interest level in learning science with technology through online gaming and rich multimedia suggesting that virtual science museums can be educationally valuable and support an alternative to traditional teaching methods if designed with the end user in mind.

The focus of this dissertation is my investigation into how primary school teachers can be guided to provide effective conditions for student learning on teacher-led school excursions to museums. The dissertation follows my learning journey, beginning with my entering experiences as a teacher, museum educator and teacher educator and then following stages of literature search, questions, action and reflection. The research design has affinity with action research and utilises an assemblage of methodologies which are empathetic with the study itself, principally observations and interviews. My thesis is that a framework based on strategies which reflect informal learning behaviours of family groups, learner-centred teaching approaches, and meaningful integration of school and museum studies, can create favourable conditions for student learning on excursions. Further, with minimal professional development, classroom teachers can implement such a framework. The first of three field studies tested my understandings about current practices on teacher-led school excursions to museums. Observations of 12 school excursions in Sydney, Australia, revealed a strong teacher orientation toward task completion rather than learning, and underlined the need to search for an alternative approach. Following a literature search on school visits to museums, social constructivist learning and teaching, and family visits, a School-Museum Learning Framework (SMLF) was designed. The SMLF was trialed in the second field study in which I was the principal teacher as well as researcher, working with a Year 5/6 class. The most significant finding was the students' recognition and declaration of their own learning in an environment in which they had choice and ownership of their learning. Consideration of the nature and measurement of learning in informal settings led to a tentative tool for indicating engagement in learning processes. In my third field study I investigated the broader application of the SMLF in four trials involving seven teachers. The teachers participated in a one-day professional development seminar and then conducted their own school-museum programs. The results showed the SMLF to be robust under a range of circumstances. My findings from the trials led to a refined flexible framework: School-Museum Integrated Learning Experiences in Science, which is based on three Guiding Principles: integration of school and museum learning; provision of conditions for self-directed learning and facilitation of learning strategies appropriate to the setting. The findings from this research have significance for students, teachers, teacher educators and museum educators.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, page: 3014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-43).

Final Project (M.A.)--John F. Kennedy University, 2006. / "July 18, 2006"--T.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-81).

Os museus existem desde a Grécia Antiga, mas apenas recentemente, principalmente a partir da metade do século XX, é que se começou a dar importância para a dimensão educativa que esses espaços podem desenvolver. Desde então, as exposições passaram a se preocupar em ressignificar os objetos expostos, pensando no conteúdo que eles podem carregar consigo. Entre a intenção dos idealizadores de uma exposição e as possíveis interpretações dos visitantes há um espaço, e cabe aos mediadores fazer a ponte entre esses dois pontos. Esses mediadores, em geral, são estudantes de graduação, que atuam muitas vezes improvisando, criando um repertório de exemplos, analogias e explicações para aproximar o conteúdo científico de uma exposição do visitante. Este trabalho analisou os mediadores da Estação Ciência (USP), quais os recursos por eles utilizados e com quais intenções eles produzem esses discursos, para então compreender o processo dessa produção na tentativa de comunicar o conhecimento científico. Buscamos nos apoiar nas teorias da Transposição Didática (Chevallard) e do Discurso Pedagógico (Bernstein), entendendo que o museu é um espaço que promove a formação de conceitos e que favorece as interações sociais capazes de promover a aprendizagem, numa referência à concepção de aprendizagem vigotskiana. Os resultados dessa análise permitiram-nos concluir que diversos discursos e saberes influenciam na construção do discurso de um mediador, no entanto, o processo de produção desse discurso mostrou-se pouco consciente e reflexivo quando se trata de comunicar algum conhecimento, e isso aponta para a necessidade de se investir na formação desses profissionais. / Museums have existed since Ancient Greece, but only recently, mainly starting in the 20th century, people have begun to notice the educational dimension that can be developed inside museums. Since then, curators have been concerned about resignifying the objects exhibited, thinking about the content they carry. There is a gap between the intentions of the creators of an exhibit and the possible interpretations of the visitors, and the role of the mediators is to bridge this gap. These mediators are, in general, undergraduate students who often improvise, creating a repertory of examples, analogies and explanations to bring visitors closer to the scientific content of the exhibit. In this paper we analyze the mediators working at USP\'s Estação Ciência (The University of São Paulo\'s Science Station), the type of resources they make use of and their intentions when building their discourses, so that we can finally understand the production process of these discourses (which try to convey scientific knowledge). For that we rely on Chevallard\'s didactic transposition and Bernstein\'s pedagogic discourse theories, with the understanding that the museum is a space that fosters the building of concepts and promotes the types of social interaction that are capable of stimulating learning, referencing Vygostky\'s vision of what learning is about. The results of this analysis enabled us to conclude that several discourses and brands of knowledge can influence the production of a mediator\'s discourse; however, the production process of this discourse is only slightly conscious and deliberative when it comes to conveying knowledge. This points to the necessity of investing in the preparation of these professionals.

Authentic assessment of visitor learning in museum settings is a challenging endeavor. Evaluation literature includes very few studies that link adult visitors' behavior to their learning. Multiple data collection methods in a naturalistic environment hold great promise for increasing understanding of informal public education. In 1997, Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) in Newport, Oregon, opened a new visitor center. This unique science museum was designed with strong educational goals in mind. The first gallery, the Pattern Garden, was intended to provide a framework of understanding that visitors would build on during their journey through the museum. The three main exhibits in this gallery include a touch pool with live tidepool animals, a sound exhibit with listening stations, and a water wheel that demonstrates chaos theory. This study is a summative evaluation of these three exhibits and their educational effectiveness, both individually and as part of the overall gallery. Data on exhibit holding power and visitor behavior were collected for this evaluation. The touch pool and the sound station were videotaped, while field notes were used to document holding power at the water wheel. In addition, a wireless microphone was mounted at the touch pool to document discussion between visitors and docents. Visitors who spent a minimum of ten seconds at each of the three exhibits were interviewed as they prepared to leave the museum. The interviewer asked the visitor to recall the Pattern Garden exhibits, with special attention to things they learned and associations they made to their daily lives. Both holding power and learning proved to be the greatest at the touch pool. Further investigations are indicated to isolate whether it was the content of the exhibit, the presence of a docent, or other factors that made it particularly effective. The water wheel's holding power was nearly as high as that of the touch pool, but visitor learning scores were lower. Interview data indicated that the complex, difficult nature of the chaos concept was partly responsible for the low educational results. The sound station resulted in moderate holding power and moderate learning. Difficulties and successes in the research design indicate important factors to consider for future evaluation studies at informal science learning centers. / Graduation date: 1999