21st Century Museum Issues Lecture Series: The Museum Experience Revisited

21st Century Museum Issues Lecture Series: The Museum Experience Revisited Based on their 2012 book The Museum Experience Revisited, John Falk and Lynn Dierking, Sea Grant Professors of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University, take a "visitor's eye view" of museums. Their talk draws upon the latest advances in museum research, theory, and practice to describe why people go to museums, what they do there, how they learn and what museum practitioners can do to enhance these experiences. Made possible in part with a JSMA Academic Support Grant. Dr. John Falk worked at the Smithsonian Institution for fourteen years where he held a number of senior positions including: Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Research; Director, Smithsonian Office of Educational Research; and Associate Director for Education, Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies. He earned a joint doctorate in Biology and Education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over ninety scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of biology, psychology and education, co-author with Lynn Dierking of The Museum Experience, Learning from Museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning and Lessons without Limit: How free-choice learning is transforming education, and editor of Free-Choice Science Education: How we learn science outside of school. He is also author/editor of numerous science educational materials and books including Bubble Monster and other Science Fun, Bite Sized Science and the Smithsonian Science Activity Books (Volumes 1-3). Research priorities include the study of learning in free-choice learning settings (with particular expertise in museums), the long-term impact of free-choice educational institutions on individuals and communities, and investigating new business models for museums and other cultural institutions. Dr. Lynn D. Dierking is internationally recognized for her research on the behavior and learning of children, families and adults in free-choice learning settings and has published and spoken extensively in these areas. She possesses a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Florida, Gainesville and her research priorities include: the long-term impact of free-choice learning experiences on individuals and families and the development and evaluation of community-based programs. Over the last 20 years Dr. Dierking has worked in a variety of settings, including: the Smithsonian Office of Educational Research, University of Maryland's College of Education and as director of a national curriculum project, Science in American Life, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Her publications include four books co-authored with John Falk, The Museum Experience (Whalesback Books, 1992), Collaboration: Critical Criteria for Success (Association of Science-Technology Centers, 1997), Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning (AltaMira, 2000) and Lessons without Limit: How Free-Choice Learning is Transforming Education (AltaMira, 2002); and one book co-authored with Wendy Pollack, Questioning Assumptions: An Introduction to Front-End Studies in Museums (Association of Science-Technology Centers, 1998). She also co-edited a volume with John Falk, Public Institutions for Personal Learning: Establishing a Research Agenda. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Science Education and the Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship.