Social learning – what people learn from each other and about each other – is a fascinating and little-known area of free-choice learning in science engagement. It is a visitor-driven process and does not necessarily follow our institutional agendas. Social learning leaves little, if any trace in the venue: visitors take their social experience home. According to research, moments of social learning are among the most memorable learning experiences.
This session discusses exhibitions that have been designed with social experiences in mind. What are the key elements of the planning process, when you wish to engage the audience socially? What does evaluation say about the visitor response to these exhibitions?
Facilitator
Session speakers
Head of Development
Bergen
Norway
Theoretical framework of social learning. Social learning is a dimension of learning processes that is emphasised within theory of learning. Examples of thinkers within learning theory are the classics by L. S. Vygotsky, our own J. Falk, and D. A. Sousa who link it to neuroscience. What can we learn from these thinkers, and how can theory guide us in designing fruitful learning experiences?
Exhibition producer
Sami will share the development process of the socially engaging MIND YOUR BRAIN exhibition. The whole experience is designed for groups of 2 to 5 people, whose task is to take care of a brain model they take with them in the beginning of the exhibition - and their own brains, at the same time! Evaluation about the social learning aspect of this exhibition is collected in October-November, and successes and failures among the learning outcomes are shared at the session.
Programme Manager - International Relations and Learning
Hellerup
Denmark
Experimentarium has developed the PULSE exhibition on health promotion in a co-creation process together with families from different socio-economic. backgrounds. The main target group for the exhibition is groups and families and as such social dialogue is what we hope to see and hope our visitors will experience. It now has some years behind it and we have tweeked and changed parts of the exhibition in attempts to improve the social dialogues and collaboration. Sheena will share the results behind the recent evaluation on visitors’ engagement in the Pulse exhibition.