Classes

How People Learn (HPL) is designed to help you develop a flexible, foundational understanding of how people develop over the lifespan; how people learn; and how educators might successfully design, lead, and create systems to support others’ learning and growth. In HPL, you...

This course examines selected learning theories that have shaped and are shaping the development of educational offerings like programs and exhibitions in museums and similar informal learning environments. We explore a variety of ways that learning happens in these...

Research and evaluation are key tools for increasing self-awareness within museums and similar institutions. Organizations cannot learn and improve in any systematic way without some means of assessment. Museum professionals in nearly any position find themselves required to...

Slow looking involves taking the time to carefully observe more than is initially apparent. It happens anywhere people take a generous amount of time to explore the world closely—in museums, in classrooms, in laboratories, and in everyday experience. Slow looking involves...

Along with schools, museums are one of society's most visible institutions of learning. Changing perceptions of museums and their role in society, combined with contemporary ideas about cognition and human development, make today's museums a fascinating context in which to...

This course provides a behind-the-scenes view of museums from the people who are actively involved in their operation. Students learn about the history and objectives of various types of museums (art, natural history, science, historical, zoological) through panel...

How does one collect, analyze, and write about data collected from a small number of people who were neither randomly sampled nor numerous enough to serve as the basis for statistically significant generalizations? What kinds of claims can one make based on this kind of data...

Visitors are an essential component of museums, without them the buildings would only be warehouses or archives. Understanding visitors is a necessary component for understanding museums. This course examines the progression of learning theories that have shaped the...

This course introduces students to the main elements of museum management. Its focus is not on administrative technicalities but rather on issues of organizational and managerial practice. The course identifies the typical mix of challenges involved in running a museum...

Objects embody natural processes as well as human activity and can connect people, places, and ideas. This course invites students to begin examining the role of objects in learning and teaching, especially, although not exclusively, in museum contexts. Students will explore...

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic tenets of teaching and learning in museums. The first part of the course examines how museums' initial educational roles evolved. The second part explores case studies of noteworthy museum education programs...

This course examines learning theories that have shaped – and are shaping – the development of programs and exhibitions in museums and similar informal learning environments. We explore the wide variety of ways learning happens in museums, focusing on the visitors themselves...