There is an increasing interest in understanding learning and knowledge development when visitors attend informal institutions, such as museums, science centers, aquariums and botanical gardens. But in what ways do visitors develop new knowledge, skills and awareness about displayed issues in these kinds of settings and how does the exhibition environment affect and scaffold learning processes? In this book, the authors turn their attention to visitors and staff members actions and dialogues during the visits in order to identify and study learning situations. A common approach is the use and development of socio-cultural and cultural-historical frameworks and theories as means for coming closer to the significance of interactions at different levels and in different contexts. The individual chapters cover learning interactions in relation to staff members roles and identities, family visits, exhibitions as resources for professional development and school visits.

Introduction; 1. Using sociocultural frameworks to understand the significance of interactions at science and technology centers and museums; 2. Changing practices, changing identities as museum educators: From didactic telling to scaffolding in the zpd; 3. The medium is the message: Unravelling visitors views of body worlds and the story of the heart; 4. Family engagement at aquarium touch tanksexploring interactions and the potential for learning; 5. Student teachers moment-to-moment reasoning and the development of discursive themes an analysis of practical epistemologies in a natural history museum exhibit; 6. The impact of exhibit-based professional development on teachers PCK; 7. Exploring and scaffolding learning interactions between teachers, students and museum educators; 8. Look and learn: Young childrens behaviour at an interactive exhibit; 9. Activity theory as a lens to examine project-based museum partnerships in robotics: Tools, challenges and emergent learning opportunities; 10. Scaffolding students post-visit learning from interactive exhibits; 11. Imitating the family visit: Small-group exploration in an ecological garden.