What Makes Learning Fun?

Principles for the Design of Intrinsically Motivating Museum Exhibits

By (author) Deborah L. Perry

Publication date:

04 May 2012

Length of book:

256 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759108844

Although much has been written in recent years on what museum visitors actually experience, there is little research-backed guidance available for developing meaningful exhibits and programs for specific educational purposes. Deborah Perry looks at what we know about the experiences of people in museums and other informal learning settings, and then shares a set of tested principles and strategies—known as the Selinda Model—for the design of effective museum exhibits. Along the way, she showcases examples of both effective and ineffective exhibit designs drawn from two decades of work in the field.

List of Strategies
List of Figures

Introduction

PART I: Understanding Visitor Experiences
1. Visitors, Conversation, and Learning
2. Interpretive Activism
3. The Selinda Model of Visitor Learning

PART II: Designing Visitor Experiences
4. Communication
Principle 1: Collaboration
Principle 2: Guidance

5. Curiosity
Principle 3: Perceptual Curiosity
Principle 4: Intellectual Curiosity
Principle 5: Interest

6. Confidence
Principle 6: Success
Principle 7: Expediency

7. Challenge
Principle 8: Expectations
Principle 9: Uncertainty

8. Control
Principle 10: Choice
Principle 11: Power

9. Play
Principle 12: Imagination
Principle 13: Sensory Exploration

Appendix A: Descriptions of the Colored Shadows and The Color Connection Exhibits
Appendix B: Overview of Original Research
Appendix C: The What Makes Learning Fun? Framework
Appendix D: Sample Knowledge Hierarchies

Acknowledgments
References
Index
About the Author

[T]he greatest strength of the book is its focus on application of the principles. Each of the six chapters in Part Two addresses one of the motivations listed along the base of the Selinda model and provides strategies for implementing each principle. ... As she presents each new principle or strategy, she revisits the earlier cited exhibit redesign and discusses how her redesign employed that principle or strategy. This helps illustrate her ideas, and her explanations are generally very helpful. The inclusion in Appendix A of photos and illustrations of that exhibit before and after the redesign also proves helpful. This book is. . . well written and it is a fairly quick read. ... It was refreshing to read a book in which someone borrowed from instructional design to enhance practice in her field.