Previous research from in and outside museums suggests that the haptic exploration of surfaces and objects have various educational benefits and can positively influence the museum visit experience. However, there is still a need for more research on the potential effects of object handling on museum learning, especially in science museums. The…

The Classroom Environment Study explored instructional quality and classroom management factors as predictors of student cognitive and affective outcomes. The German contribution to this study, involving 39 fifth-grade classrooms and 39 regular and mathematics teachers over a two-year period, is described and results are presented. (Author/MT)