In this article, I explore how relationships can change the teaching practices of museum educators and strategies of entire organizations by empirically studying conversations museum educators have every day in meetings, in the hallways, and all the places where they talk about their work. I present the possibilities of reciprocal telling…

In this article, we describe some of the common misconceptions guests have expressed while visiting a Museum of Natural History and Science, along with ways in which museum educators had reacted to and/or responded to guests' misconceptions. Correcting commonly held misconceptions can be difficult, especially when guests are emotionally invested…

Museums play an important role in out-of-school learning. Many museums have begun offering distance learning programs to increase their reach and the accessibility of their collections. These programs serve a wide range of audiences from pre-kindergarten to lifelong learners. This descriptive study examined the current practices in museum-based…

Between 2013 and 2014, 25.2% of 10th grade algebra students who worked with 870,000 adult volunteers in after-school programs in the United States met their goals of improved math proficiency scores. A gap exists involving volunteer training strategies for after-school programs that are effective in improving math proficiency of 10th grade math…

By prompting imagined or actual bodily experience, we can guide interpretation of tools to emphasize the action that those tools perform. The technique requires little more than an extension from looking at an object, to imagining how the body engages with it, perhaps even trying out those specialist postures, to nourish an interpretation centered…

Teaching general adult audiences in art museums requires the teacher to consider different goals and priorities than those of school, teacher, or family programs. In this reflective essay, one gallery educator whose primary museum teaching experiences had been with the latter audiences discusses a transition to leading public tours. He describes…

How do young people experience camp, and how might that experience help us expand our understanding of what is possible in non-formal learning environments? In-depth interviews consisting of forced-choice and open-ended questions were conducted with 59 Concordia Language Villages residential camp participants who partake in a linguistically and…

Our research objective focused on monitoring students' mental effort and cognitive achievement to unveil potential effects of an instructional change in an out-of-school laboratory offering gene technology modules. Altogether, 231 students (12th graders) attended our day-long hands-on module. Within a quasi-experimental design, a treatment group…

Little is known about the nature of teaching and the role of emotions in nonformal education. This is not surprising, given that nonformal education has many shades of meaning, limited literature exists about the realities of teaching in nonformal settings, and little has been written about the nature of emotions and teaching in formal settings,…

This study developed and tested a framework to analyze 20 lifelong learning settings. Four groupings of approaches were identified: school-type, leisure time, bottom-up change movements, and top-down, national-level change movements. (JOW)

Describes some innovations found in large U.S. corporations' educational programs and discusses the relevance of these innovations for educational institutions. (MCG)

This article suggests that teachers make use of the special student performances offered by many city opera companies. It discusses advantages and disadvantages of these programs and what the teacher might expect of them. The educational programs of 22 American opera companies are described. Part of a theme issue on opera. (SJL)

An attempt to foster greater self-confidence among prison inmates by teaching representational drawing and art appreciation encountered problems because of the wide range of skills in each class and the students' lack of experience with live models and symbolic representation. Teaching methods and drawing materials used are also discussed. (IS)

Discusses strategies for developing and sustaining environmental literacy in a world where forces shaping current views are alienating people from nature. Strategies to combat these forces focus on awareness campaigns, financial support, nonformal groups, information access, high environmental impact careers, teacher training, and government…

Factors in selecting and using microcomputers for school, business, and industry are outlined. Considerations include: (1) computer literacy; (2) networking; (3) training of handicapped people; (4) training and work applications; and (5) technology developments. (FG)