The Contextual Model of Learning - Juliana

How does the Contextual Model of Learning apply to evaluation in Informal Learning Environments?

The factors of the Contextual Model of Learning strongly influence how a guest behaves in a museum space, so they should also determine how a guest is evaluated. The way a guest learns and what they learn during their time is largely dependent on what their background is as well as their reasons for being there. In addition, how guests interact with other people in the space, including people they came with, other guests, and staff will also have an impact on how they learn. All of these factors are important to know when evaluating each guest individually in informal learning environments.

What aspects of the Contextual Model of Learning (or the large Museum Visitor Experience Model) are most interesting and why? 

In Chapter 7, “The Museum Visitor Experience Model,” I found Falk’s discussion of identity-based motivations and trajectories interesting, as it puts each person that walks into a museum space on a specific path. I thought about how each of these trajectories might look at MOXI, and think they are usually pretty easy to spot based on who is in the group of visitors and how they behave. I picture the “Explorers” as almost all young kids that come with their families or schools. Explorers can be adults as well, but if they are visiting with their own children or chaperoning a field trip then they probably fall more into the “Facilitator” category. “Experience seekers” may include tourists, or guests who have heard or read that MOXI is a popular spot to visit in Santa Barbara. “Professional/hobbysists,” and “Rechargers” are probably less common in MOXI than the other groups, but could include professionals studying museum spaces.

In both articles, Falk discussed the satisfaction of a visitor being dependent on their expectations and whether those expectations were met during their visit, which is another thing that stuck out to me. When many people picture what a museum looks like, I think that for the most part MOXI meets those expectations. This definitely depends on the prior experiences to each individual and their reasons for visiting MOXI. However, in many ways I think that expectations are not met for some visitors, for example professionals/hobbyists may be thrown off by the lack of signage. They may be expecting to learn explicit scientific facts and be surprised when they don’t find those on a nice plaque beside each exhibit. While some guests may become frustrated because of this, others won’t even notice the lack of signage and this all has to do with their expectations of MOXI.