The inquiry-based approach in museum education often takes the form of an educator asking open-ended questions to facilitate discussions around artworks, while encouraging students in careful observation and interpretive processes. However, although art museums are emphasizing learners' experiences and their interpretative processes, adult…

Both museums and public libraries are available sources of education for adults. Besides their traditional functions of collecting and preserving items from human artistic or scientific history, museums have taken on a more active role in educating the public, particularly adults. Some educational services provided by museums are dioramas, period…

A three-year national study of adult museum programs used a qualitative research approach and naturalistic inquiry and interviewed 508 museum program participants, 75 instructors, and 143 museum program planners in all types and sizes of museums, including art institutes, natural and cultural historical museums, science centers, historic houses,…

This compedium volume summarizes a study on the characteristics and underlying assumptions of education beyond schools. The three chapters in Part I present a method for analyzing and comparing 10 distinct approaches to out-of-school education and demonstrate the important kinds of generalizations this method can generate. Chapter 1 is an…