“Family Learning and Institutional Identity”
A Family Learning Roundtable Presentation by Gail Ringel
June 14, 2005
Our focus at this Family Learning Roundtable is on family learning, especially in history museums and art museums. You may all be asking yourselves, “What light can a children's museum possibly shed on what we do in our institutions?” I was at a recent conference where someone referred to the children's museum environment as “unbridled chaos.” It's true that we have things to climb on, and we blow bubbles and play with trucks a lot, but we also plan and build exhibits about history and cultures and many other complex and ambitious topics. I'm going to talk just a bit about that process and hope that this gives you some things to think about and apply to the work that you all do.
I'd like to start with one very important concept, and this is probably the most important thing that I'll say today: don't try to be something that you're not. Thinking about your audience and how to engage them is great, especially when you recognize the special characteristics of a family audience. But don't forget who you are! The key to planning a successful exhibit for families is the same as the key to planning a successful exhibit for anybody else: think carefully and clearly about your institutional mission and identity and let that inform decisions about what, and how exhibits will communicate.
Once you're clear on your mission, it's time to consider the audience. At Boston Children's Museum, almost all our audience is a family audience and it helps to consider what that actually means. First, it means that they come when families are able to come, so we have really big crowds sometimes, like vacation weeks, and at other times, our museum is really very quiet. Our members typically have children between 3–5 years old and the groups that visit very often include moms— and pregnant moms. I mention this primarily because pregnant people have special physical needs like places to rest and handy bathrooms. When catering to families, you also need to think about the fact that young children often require snacks and mothers of infants need places to nurse them. If you want to create an environment that's comfortable for families and provides a good environment for interacting, playing, and learning, you need to cater to all these physical needs first.
We try to take the characteristics of this audience into account as we move forward to plan all our exhibits. Here is a short list of things that we like to think about:
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Establish exhibit goals appropriate for your audience.
Try to keep children at the center of your interpretive strategy and make the messages simple, clear, and direct.
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Use developmental models to think carefully about the different ages of your audience.
Children at different ages are interested in, and capable of different things. By reading up on the differences between children under 4, kids 4–6, and 7 and up, you can create slightly different messages, activities, and expectations for each segment of this audience.
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Think about kids' interests and what they like to do.
By incorporating role play, things that are gross or “forbidden,” spy or detective challenges, ideas about fairness, baseball, etc. you can make things far more appealing to children and their families.
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Figure out if you need a facilitator to make the experience work.
Some exhibit experiences really need facilitators and if you plan for this, you might create a truly memorable experience.
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Give kids an opportunity to make choices.
Children have so few chances to express preference and make decisions that determine what comes next. Giving them the ability to make choices can be intriguing, engaging, and highly memorable.
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Depend on “real” experiences; use fewer computer screens.
Many children have plenty of opportunities to interact with computers and it's hard to compete with the complexity and quality of off-the-shelf products. Museums, on the other hand, have a unique ability to offer interactions with “real things.” We should appreciate the value of this for families and children.
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Think about hands-on, inquiry based learning.
Providing more open-ended experiences can engage the active curiosity of children and their families. But beware— while this results in exhibits that are successful from a visitor's point of view, it does mean giving up control of some exhibit messages and experiences.
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Contemplate the relative attention spans of adults and children.
Don't assume that adult visitors are the ones with long attention spans. Children often get involved in exploring and repeating exhibit activities and can be happy to linger in one spot for long periods of time. When parents are also engaged, there's a great chance that kids will be allowed to finish their “work” before moving on.
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Prototype and build to last, including use of materials that can be cleaned.
There's no substitute for trying things out with a real audience. Be prepared to change the way things work, the relative position or wording of instructions, and at times your entire exhibit concept if people just don't “get it.” And remember, interactive means that you'll be doing more cleaning that you're used to.
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Give adults an explicit role in the exhibit experience.
If you can't articulate exactly what adults will do in the exhibit, then you haven't really thought about the different roles that family members will play in a family learning experience.
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Find ways to make kids the experts and guides; help children gain confidence in their own skills.
Children delight in gaining mastery and showing others how to do things. Designing exhibits with this in mind will appeal to kids and let them take the lead in a family experience.
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Guide observation and interpretation.
People don't always know what to look at or why something is interesting. Simple statements that draw attention to details can engage an audience. Remember that the audience does not have the “curator's eye.”
Planning for family learning can enrich exhibit experiences not only for people in family groups but for all visitors. To make it work, it's always important to remember who we are. Make sure, when you're planning an exhibit, that the most engaging experience is closely tied to an exhibit message, or institutional message, that's central. There are lots of fun exhibit ideas, but the best ones are always most closely tied to our identities as institutions.
