Museum Learning As Conversational Ellaboration: A Proposal to Capture, Code, and Analyze Talk in Museums

This report proposes a comprehensive study to answer the question: How does conversation as a socially mediating activity act as both a process and an outcome of museum learning experiences? The study will examine museum learning across six kinds of museums and across different kinds of visiting groups. This proposal describes a model of museum learning that puts conversation among different kinds of coherent conversational groups at the core of museum learning. It focuses on ways that conversations are elaborated, enriched, and extended as a consequence of museum activity. The model recasts the three original themes of the MLC as three dimensions that could impact conversational elaboration: identity, exploratory engagement, and features of the learning environment. The study employs regression and structural equation models to identify unique contributions of each of three dimensions to museum learning. It also proposes a series of validation studies.

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