Evening Guest Lecture Learning for Life and the Role of Museums

Evening Guest Lecture
Learning for Life and the Role of Museums
Referenten:
Lynn Dierking & John Falk
(authors of ‚The Museum Experience‘)
Mit Lynn Dierking und John Falk kommen zwei der profiliertesten und wohl
einflussreichsten akademischen Forscher nach Wien, die sich seit Jahrzehnten mit
Motivationen und Erlebnissen von Besuchern in Museen beschäftigen. Zahlreiche Bücher
und Publikationen bezeugen ihre beeindruckende Vorreiterrolle in einer Thematik, die
erst seit wenigen Jahren auch in Mitteleuropa an Bedeutung gewonnen hat. Für Museen,
die sich zu besucherorientierten Institutionen wandeln, sind ihre Forschungserkenntnisse
eine überaus wichtige Grundlage für das Verständnis individueller Besucherbedürfnisse,
aber auch Ansatz und Entscheidungshilfe für einen Paradigmenwechsel nämlich einer
strategische Neuausrichtung der Rolle der Museen im gesellschaftlichen Kontext.
Abstract:
Why do people visit museums, what do they do there, and what, if anything, do they take
away from these experiences? In this presentation Drs. John H. Falk and Lynn D.
Dierking will explore these questions, framing the use of museums and other cultural
institutions within the context of lifelong, free-choice learning. Throughout they will offer a
“visitor’s eye view” of museums and other cultural institutions, discussing how changes in
societies worldwide are affecting these institutions and the people who visit them,
drawing upon research they have conducted over the last 30+ years. Highlighting the talk
will be findings from a recently completed International Science Center Impact Study that
demonstrates the value that visitors themselves derive from these experiences.
Datum: 11. Dezember 2014
Zeit:
19 Uhr
Ort:
Bassanosaal, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien
Veranstalter: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
/ecm Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
ScienceCenter-Netzwerk
ICOM Österreich
KulturAgenda Institut für Museen, Kulturwirtschaft und Publikum
Anmeldung unter falk@khm.at erforderlich
Weitere Auskünfte: Christian Walt, Direktor KulturAgenda, Tel.: +43-(0)650/55 45 165
Referenten
Dr. John H. Falk, Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon
State University and Director, OSU Center for Research on Lifelong STEM
Learning, is internationally acknowledged as a leading expert on free-choice
learning; the learning that occurs while visiting museums, zoos, aquariums or
parks, watching educational television or surfing the Internet for information. Dr.
Falk has authored over one hundred fifty scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of learning,
ecology and education, more than a dozen books, and helped to create several nationally
important out-of-school educational curricula. He serves on numerous national and international
boards and commissions and has been Associate Editor of several internationally prominent
journals.
Before joining the faculty at Oregon State University, he founded and directed the Institute for
Learning Innovation where for twenty years he oversaw more than 200 research and evaluation
projects involving a wide range of free-choice learning institutions. He also worked as an early
child science educator at the University of Maryland and spent fourteen years at the Smithsonian
Institution where he held a number of senior positions including Director, Smithsonian Office of
Educational Research. In 2006 Falk was recognized by the American Association of Museums as
one of the 100 most influential museum professionals of the past 100 years. In 2010 he was
further recognized by the American Association of Museum’s Education Committee with its
highest award, the John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership. In 2013 the U.S. Council of Science
Society President’s gave Falk their Educational Research Award for his outstanding achievement
in research that improved children’s learning and understanding. Falk earned a joint doctorate in
Ecology and Science Education from the University of California, Berkeley.
Lynn D. Dierking is Professor, Free-Choice STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering & Mathematics) Learning, College of Science, and Associate Dean
for Research, College of Education, Oregon State University. She is
internationally recognized for her research on lifelong learning, particularly freechoice, out-of-school time learning (in museums, after-school, home-, and
community-based contexts), with diverse youth and families. Over her 35-year
career she has worked in a variety of educational settings, including middle and high school
science teaching, as a researcher in the Smithsonian Office of Educational Research, as a faculty
member in University of Maryland’s College of Education and as director of a national middle
school science and history curriculum project, Science in American Life, at the National Museum
of American History, Smithsonian.
Prior to joining the faculty at OSU, Dierking was Vice President for Special Initiatives at the
Institute for Learning Innovation, a not-for-profit research and development organization focused
on understanding and facilitating lifelong free-choice learning.
Lynn publishes extensively and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Museum
Management and Curatorship, Afterschool Matters and Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
Lynn was named to the Centennial Honor Roll of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) in
2006 as one of the 100 most influential leaders of the past 100 years. AAM further recognized her
with AAM’s 2010 John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership, an award only given occasionally that
recognizes someone outside the museum field who exhibits outstanding leadership and promotes
the educational responsibility and capacity of museums. She also was a speaker in the National
Science Foundation’s 2013 Distinguished Lecture Series. Lynn received her Ph.D. in Science
Education and Educational Psychology at the University of Florida.