Mary Lou Koran

Chapter 28;The Relationship Among Interest, Attention And Learning In A Natural History Museum

Abstract Research on visitor behavior in museums and other informal settings frequently reports “attracting” and “holding power” of exhibits. From these data researchers have inferred interest, attention and learning. Although psychological studies have explored the effect of interest on attention and learning, similar data have not been reported in museum literature. Conventional wisdom suggests that if an individual is interested in a topic, he/she will pay more attention to the topic and learn more about the topic. Research with both narrative prose and unrelated sentences suggests that this relationship does indeed exist. In these studies, increased attention is devoted to elements of a text in proportion to their interest. Because of the extra attention and processing activities supported by the extra attention, elements of interest are learned better than other elements. However, these results have not always been consistent. In this study, 47 College of Education undergraduates observed a sequence ...

CHapter 9: The (Potential) Contributions Of Cognitive Psychology To Visitor Studies

Abstract The cognitive movement in instruction has major implications for research and practice in informal settings. While some approaches emphasize changing the environment in order to influence visitor behavior in hopes that greater interest and learning will occur, the cognitive approach emphasizes influencing how the learner perceives, thinks and acts in relation to exhibits. Learners are required to be actively involved mentally and physically. Translated to the museum context, it is just as important to focus on how the visitor perceives the museum and what the visitor thinks about museums and exhibits as it is to focus on the exhibit and its revision or reconstruction. Accordingly, the visitor is responsible for attending to exhibits and engaging in the active construction of mental elaborations. The exhibit should be designed so that the visitor can engage in the activities and interactions that facilitate the active construction of mental elaborations. Here visitors are not considered passive co...

Evaluation of Instructional Materials for Teaching Psychomotor Skills

An investigation was conducted to determine the effectiveness of self-instructional materials for a cavity preparation procedure using two types of dental auxiliaries under assisted and unassisted instructional conditions. Results showed significant pretest to posttest performance gains, with the instruction proving equally effective across both types of auxiliaries and instructional conditions.

Varying instructional methods to fit trainee characteristics

One problem facing teacher training programs is that of determining the most effective methods for training large numbers of individuals possessing dissimilar patterns of abilities. Both learner and instructional system alike may be expected to benefit greatly when individuals can be identified whose progress can be facilitated through varying instructional goals and objectives. However, while the need has been documented and the ideal has been expressed, little has been done in any formal, systematic way toward the individualization of teacher education. At the present time, it seems possible to develop educational procedures more sensitive to individual differences than our procedures have been in the past. Earlier contributors to the literature (Fuller, 1969; Hereford, 1971; Merrill, 1968) have emphasized the importance of patterns of adaptation to individual differences in which educational objectives, pacing, and sequencing are varied. An alternative approach provides varying instructional methods for different students to reach the same educational goals (Cronbach, 1967). Instructional methods differ. A review of the literature (Cronbach & Snow, 1969) suggests that a person learns more easily from one method than another, that this best method differs from student to student, and that such differences between treatments are related to learner

Chapter 7: Individual Differences in Learning in Informal Settings

Abstract One characteristic of museums and zoological parks is the diversity of their visitors. Typically, visitors will consist of a range of ages, both sexes and a range of background and experience. Add to these variables the probability that visitors will be more or less verbal, learn better from visual or aural presentations, be more or less inhibited or aggressive when confronted with a hands-on situation, be more or less attentive, have more or less conceptual or factual knowledge about the exhibits, have well developed memory skills or none at all, and will differ in their ability to function inductively and we see the critical role of “individual differences.” Individual differences may be compensatory or facilitative. If an aptitude is well developed, such as visual learning skills, the aptitude can facilitate learning from an exhibit. A well-developed aptitude can also function to develop or assist in developing another aptitude. Defined, an aptitude is any characteristic of a person (cognitive...