Object Lessons and Early Learning

Sharon Shaffer, Sharon E. Shaffer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781629584041
• eBook ISBN: 9781351332903
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The twenty-first century is a time of change for early learning in museums, due in part to society's evolving view of childhood, from an age of innocence to understanding the robust learning that defines the first years of life. This perspective is a catalyst for international conversation and continues to raise attention and interest across society. Object Lessons and Early Learning leverages what is known about the cognitive development of young children to examine the power of learning through objects in museum and heritage settings.

Exploring the history and modern day practice of object-based learning, Shaffer outlines the rationale for endorsing this approach in both formal and informal learning spaces. She argues that museums, as collecting institutions, are learning spaces uniquely positioned to allow children to make meaning about their world through personal connections to cultural artifacts, natural specimens, and works of art. A range of descriptive object lessons, inspired by objects in museums as well as from the everyday world, are presented throughout the text as examples of ways in which children can be encouraged to engage with museum collections.

Object Lessons and Early Learning offers insights into strategies for engaging young children as learners in museum settings and in their everyday world, and, as such, will be essential reading for museum professionals, classroom educators, and students. It should also be of great interest to academics and researchers engaged in the study of museums and education.

1

Setting the Stage for Early Learning in Museums

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, “This is when I became myself.”

Rita Dove

Introduction

Museums are magical places for most people. For the young child, an environment filled with familiar and unfamiliar objects becomes a place of wonder and excitement, transporting the child to new worlds through the power of imagination. Museums with their awe-inspiring experiences are places that offer life-changing moments for young visitors. As Rita Dove suggests in the above quote, we all have defining moments in childhood that come to define who we are later in life. An early encounter in a museum might be that magical moment when a child is inspired to be a botanist, archaeologist, or artist. It is the beginning of something new and wonderful!

In many ways, museums are made for children. A young child’s ability to suspend reality and imagine another place or time is useful in making connections to art and artifacts. Although children understand their world in a way that is qualitatively different from adults, they are able to interpret what they see by making associations with prior knowledge. Children’s intuitive strategies become tools that build a foundation for learning about their world and how it works.

Children in the twenty-first century are welcomed into many museums and inspired by art and artifacts, but this has not always been so. Museums are clearly in a time of change (Schwarzer 2006) from how they tell stories through objects to ways they connect with the public and the diversity of people they serve.

The museum is no longer defined by its walls and galleries, but extends into the community to touch the lives of people, both young and old, in many diverse ways. It is no longer solely about the object, but more importantly now is focused on the story. A child in the twenty-first century will understand museums in a way that differs from that of past generations, reflecting a realm of interactions that range from art and artifacts in galleries and sculpture gardens to digital interfaces with objects and experiences that take place outside of the walls of museums. This change certainly influences how we perceive the young child in the context of museums.

At a time when museum attendance is declining (National Endowment for the Arts 2013) or at best leveling off (Falk and Dierking 2013), anecdotal accounts by museum professionals show a significant increase in the public’s desire for children’s programs and experiences, particularly those aimed at preschoolers and babies. This is true both in the United States and abroad. Young museum-goers are visiting traditional museums with families and preschool classes more frequently now than ever before. They are experiencing art, artifacts, and natural specimens through educational programs, specially designed spaces that engage learners through their senses, and hands-on opportunities offered in galleries and during family festivals.

Each experience becomes more meaningful when it is relevant for a child. But how is relevance defined for the young museum visitor? The idea of relevance is frequently referenced in today’s conversations, part of the lexicon of most individuals. But at times it’s a word that is bandied about without much thought to its meaning. When thinking about young children in museums, relevance can be defined as a place of intersection between the child’s world and the collection. It is that sweet spot for making meaning where a child’s background knowledge derived from past experience and the specific collection represented in a museum come together. This place of intersection grows, and knowledge deepens, with new encounters; meaning comes from making connections between the known and the unknown to build new understanding.

Relevance can be as simple as a preschooler’s experience with Calder’s sculpture of a fish, a work of art crafted from wire and found objects. The sculpture, while novel, retains familiar features such as shape or texture, so that a child can easily associate this new object with the real thing based on previous encounters with books or personal experiences. For some children, there is a clear connection between the scales of a real fish and the wire framework of the sculpture housing each found object from a piece of sea glass or a gear to a broken shell, all connections to prior knowledge that allow a child to construct meaning. And while a child’s understanding of the art is far from comprehensive in nature, meaningful connections are made as children integrate each new experience with knowledge from the past. The interpretive process is in play, even at a very early age.

There are often misconceptions about a child’s ability to relate to unfamiliar objects, which leads to excluding children from exhibitions or even museums that represent collections outside of a child’s existing experience. This is particularly true for children five years of age or younger. But relevance is still possible, even with unfamiliar objects. The secret is finding that place of intersection with a child’s world.

With unknown artifacts, educators and parents can facilitate learning by introducing familiar objects to enlighten the child about the less familiar entity. An artifact such as an African headrest, clearly an unfamiliar object for most children, can be understood when associated with a small pillow, a familiar object. There is often a moment of excitement when a young child recognizes the relationship between the familiar and unfamiliar objects. Experiences gain relevance when connections are made between a child’s world and the new encounter.

Today’s museum educators likely recognize the value of creating children’s experiences that connect with a child’s interests or prior knowledge, thereby increasing the likelihood that the experience is relevant for young visitors. But has this practice always been a part of museum education? What does the history of museums tell us about the place of children in these institutions?

A Look Back: Children in Museums

The American museum of the eighteenth century is not the museum of today. From the 1773 collection gathered by the Charleston Library Society to the first public museum in 1786 in the Philadelphia home of artist Charles Wilson Peale (Schwarzer 2006, p. 8), the era of museums took root. Today’s museum is strikingly different from that of early museums, from the demographics of visitors to the physical design of the space as well as expectations of what the experience might be. Unlike the static displays in early libraries and museums, current exhibitions seek to engage the visitor in the story and in some cases invite community collaboration in the creation of stories and exhibitions. In the past two centuries, the museum as an institution has grown and transformed as a reflection of the values and beliefs of society.

The early history of the American museum can be defined in terms of collections displayed in the homes of the wealthy, comprised of artifacts gathered from travel or objects that reflect a collector’s personal curiosity, often specimens from nature. Artifacts were loosely organized and shared primarily with friends of a similar social class; displays were often described as cabinets of curiosities and reserved for members of the social elite. Over time, collections moved from private parlors to libraries, becoming some of the first public exhibitions (ibid.), and then to venues designed specifically for collection display.

Children entered the scene when museums formalized their commitment to education in institutional mission statements and invested in exhibitions and programs designed to serve the public. “Through the display of objects, museum directors desired to make meaningful learning experiences accessible to the masses. Exhibitions were viewed as vehicles to advance the arts and sciences and to edify aesthetic taste and public moral values” (Findlay and Perricone 2009, p. 8). And while reaching the masses was the aim, many minorities and groups from lower socio-economic levels of society were not included. Even so, the demographics defining the museum audience were changing, beginning to represent a broader swath of society that included school children. Museums welcomed a more diverse audience into their halls and galleries to learn from the collections. Over time, society came to view these institutions as places of learning.

At a time when traditional museums were still perceived primarily as places for scholarly research or leisure activity for the well-educated, the Smithsonian Institution offered a somewhat different view for the museum field, one that advanced the Institution’s commitment to education. Under the visionary leadership of Samuel P. Langley (1887–1906), the Smithsonian Institution created The Children’s Room, devoting time and resources to reach a more diverse audience, specifically children. Langley’s efforts began in 1889 with “experiments in the ornithological department,” intended to create more child-friendly experiences (NeCastro 1988, p. 2). Although Secretary Langley was disappointed with this early experiment, he understood that “if children were to benefit from the educational possibilities which existed in museums, a different approach to exhibit design would be necessary” (ibid., p. 2). This insight informed the design and planning for The Children’s Room, which opened in 1901 in the south tower of the Smithsonian’s Castle. The space was designed especially for children and their unique style of learning, filled with objects that might appeal to a child’s interests, a rectangular aquarium with live fish, songbirds in golden cages, eggs, feathers, minerals, and fossils, all at a child’s height (Shaffer 2015). Scientific labels written in Latin were discarded in favor of simple, familiar text. Careful thought was given to every aspect of the space, from the color of walls and floor tiles to the amount of light entering through windows (NeCastro 1988). Langley’s interests went far beyond the idea of an exhibition as an opportunity for learning. His purpose was to create a space “to excite the wonder and curiosity of children, to inspire them unconsciously with a love of nature” (Smithsonian Institution 1902, p. 54).

Langley was not the only museum professional thinking about the potential impact of museums on children’s learning. William H. Goodyear, a curator from the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in New York, was leading an effort to create a museum designed specifically for children. This newly formed entity, known as the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, marked a milestone in the history of museums and defined a groundbreaking movement that would grow to international success over the next century. With a small collection of less than perfect artifacts donated by the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the first children’s museum opened to the community in 1899 and created a more child-friendly environment for learning from objects. The popularity of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and later the Boston Children’s Museum (1913), set the tone for other communities interested in designing museums that catered to the interests and learning style of the young.

Early children’s museums were collecting institutions created to serve a young audience, but differed from the more traditional museum in that they adopted a hands-on approach to learning where visitors were free to experience the sensory nature of objects. Visitors could “sort, polish, and examine” (Hein 2006, p. 166) rocks and minerals in open collections and make personal discoveries through exploration of artifacts and specimens. The children’s museum emphasized observation and reflection as a means of developing an understanding of the world.

By the turn of the twentieth century, new partnerships between museums and schools were developing to give school-aged children an opportunity to learn from museum collections. Field trips, or journeys, became popular for teachers wanting to enrich the student experience through the use of real objects representing specific areas of study (Findlay and Perricone 2009). This popularity continued throughout much of the twentieth century. Partnerships also led to school museums, which garnered support from educators as a means of enhancing curriculum. In this time of social progressivism, museums were paying attention to the education of school children. And although traditional museums welcomed older children into their galleries as a result of these partnerships, preschool children rarely visited these institutions, relegated almost exclusively to children’s museums.

By mid-century the nation’s museums were responding to social issues and world events such as Russia’s 1957 launch of Sputnik. The American public as well as government officials looked toward education as a solution to political failings and social ills (Tyack and Cuban 1995), and museums as educational institutions took note. The country placed an emphasis on science and mathematics to regain its role as a world leader which ultimately led to a plethora of science-related museums and a new way of thinking about learning in these public venues. At the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Frank Oppenheimer designed exhibitions that encouraged exploration and discovery by visitors, changing the previous dynamic within galleries (Oppenheimer 1968). His innovative methods emphasizing sensory perception as a means of learning spread widely, introducing museums to the idea of a more active role for visitors. Oppenheimer’s techniques, while intended for all audiences, held great appeal for families and younger audiences with the emphasis on sensory experience.

Others in the field added to the idea of active learning in museums. Michael Spock, Director of the Boston Children’s Museum, embraced the notion of “experiential learning and the joys of touching” (Madden and Paisley-Jones 1987, p. 2), an approach that, while foreign to most traditional museums, was now under consideration. Discovery rooms in natural history museums, discovery carts with touchable objects, and specially-designed spaces that allowed for exploration grew from Spock’s ideas and became the norm in many museums. With the inclusion of hands-on experiences, museums were viewed as more family-friendly places with opportunities to engage younger children.

In the 1960s, beliefs about young children and their potential to learn shifted with the country’s emphasis on early childhood education and the launch of Head Start programs stemming from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Research on the effects of poverty on children and the impact of education contributed to more informed views of children and the need for education at an early age. By the 1990s, technological advances allowed researchers to study the brain (Shore 1997) to understand learning in the early years. Breakthroughs in neuroscience added to knowledge from previous research on early childhood education which redefined views about the significance of learning in the first years of life. Early learning was on the rise with new beliefs about the value of early experience garnered through research and study.

The 1992 publication of Excellence and Equity: Education and the Public Dimension of Museums (American Association of Museums 1992) added to the conversation about children in museums by redefining education in the field. The AAM report stressed the need for museums to serve a more diverse audience, which ultimately led to expanded programming for all ages, abilities, and ethnicities. Young children marched into museums on the coattails of Excellence and Equity.

Interest in young children and the early years of learning grew as the twentieth century ended. The Association of Children’s Museums filled a niche within American society by contributing to the education of children in informal environments, advancing the idea of play as a mode of learning. Model programs in museums, such as the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center (SEEC) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Museum Looks and Picture Books, offered further evidence that young children have the capacity to learn from art and artifacts in gallery settings. Support for early learning grew in ways unfathomable only a few decades before, representing a wide range of individuals and organizations from politicians and national media to local school boards and parents. Early learning’s star was on the rise.

Museums have not always been a place for very young children. But many of today’s museums are welcoming preschoolers and babies into their galleries and hoping to create experiences that are meaningful for these young museum visitors. The aim is to create relevant experiences that truly engage the young learner. To accomplish that goal, it is critical to understand educational theory and to design practice based on that understanding.

Educational Theory and Practice

Learning holds a place of importance in museums and plays a prominent role throughout much of the field’s history. This is evidenced by mission statements across time, each promising a commitment to education and learning through their collections, and also voiced by leaders representing larger museums as well as smaller, less-known institutions. The message of education rings true in the mission statement of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History: “We increase knowledge and inspire learning about nature and culture, through outstanding research, collections, exhibitions, and education, in support of a sustainable future” (Smithsonian Institution 2015). It is equally present in the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, a small museum committed to learning: “Our mission is to advance knowledge and understanding of Australia’s Indigenous people and their art and culture worldwide” (Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia 2015). Learning and museums are intertwined.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• SECTION I: Object Lessons in Theory: A Key to Interpretation
• SECTION II: Theory to Practice: Young Children and Objects
• SECTION III: Object Lessons: Engaging Young Museum Visitors
• SECTION IV: Object Lessons Beyond the Gallery
• SECTION V: A Look Forward
• References
• Index