Parental Cognitive Apprenticeship in a History Museum

• In Event: Beyond the Classroom: Meaningful Learning in Informal Spaces

Abstract

Using the cognitive apprenticeship framework, we examined parents’ verbal behaviors while guiding their children in an informal learning context – a history museum visit. Ten parent-child dyads were video-captured during their museum tour using three cameras: parent’s and child’s head-cameras capturing talk and interactions with exhibits and researcher’s camera capturing the immediate context. Parents’ talk was analyzed using grounded theory approach. Three core themes emerged (including 39 parental activity-types) pertaining to (a) museum conduct and learning; (b) museum’s characteristics; and (c) museum’s content. Parents' guidance demonstrated some commonalities with three dimensions of the cognitive apprenticeship framework, with one dimension missing and novel elements emerging, thereby extending this framework to informal learning settings. Implications to museum learning and theory are discussed.

Authors

• Billie Eilam, University of Haifa

• Merav yosfan, University of Haifa of Israel