• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.881-901
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• 2011

The science museum in the past satisfied visitors only by interacting them with simple objects and exhibition, while one in modern times was requested to meet the need of visitors in their engagement in educational programs. To meet the visitors' need, the science museum made efforts to train, educate, and assign docents so that they can interact with visitors and serve the educational purpose of visitation. In this study, we analyzed the strengths and weakness of docent training programs from science museums/science centers nationally and internationally, to make implication on how to design a docent training and professional program. Programs from four national and four international science centers/museums were selected as a sample for analysis. Their docent training programs were compared with the data of surveys and interviews and emails from docents and docent managers/evaluators. Artifacts and documents of the docent training programs were also collected and used to construct the validity in analyzing the data, resulting in the well-developed docent training program as the critical one for enriching science museum education. The results included; First, we need to recruit and train docents who interact visitors directly but they need to be differentiated from regular volunteers for promoting science museum education for the purpose of popularization of science. Additionally, Second, we need to develop and run docent training program where docents can experience 'informal learning' exhibition interpreting strategies through the real field from mentoring from the experienced/senior docents beyond 'formal learning' exhibition content. Third, we need to equip docents with skills to make scientific literacy possible at science museum-such as experiencing scientific ethics through scientific inquiry-which happens limited at school education.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.257-273
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to describe how one woman became a science docent's exper and how she developed expertise in her field of work as a docent in science museum. A life history approach, one of the qualitative research methods was employed in this study. A docent Ms. Park, had her career as a docent for eight years and she was selected through the procedures as follows. The $1^{st}$ phase of selection, the researcher contacted 56 docents who were working using a convenience sampling method. In the $2^{nd}$ phase of selection, 11 of them were then selected on purpose for further study. Finally docent Paek was selected as a case for this study on the basis of her responses to survey questions and interviews as well as her willingness to participate. Research data were collected through mainly interviews, participant observations, and docents' artifacts. We analyzed data to reveal Ms-Park's life history of how she became a docent, how her work was as a docent, and what efforts she made to become an expert as a docent of science museum. Findings are as follows. First, docent Park demonstrated strong educational beliefs that influenced her field work, as the beliefs have continuously been formed throughout her life experiences. Second, she acquired and organized her practical knowledge of exhibit interpretation through real activities and experiences interacting whith visitors and demonstrating exhibits in science museums. Third, docent Park showed her ability to make full use of surroundings and resources available for developing her expertise on exhibit interpretation more effectively. With these findings in mind, we suggest that a well established docent system as well as its operation, and physical support be needed for increased docents' expertise and meaningful education in science museum.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.200-215
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• 2012

The revitalization of science museum depends on the number of qualified docents who can meet the museum visitors' educational needs. However, the current unstructured docent system is not sufficient to meet the goal. Forty six docents currently working in science museums were surveyed about docent training program, current working conditions, and docent professional program in order to propose a viable system providing a docent profession. Data were collected through surveys with 46 docents, interviews with two experienced docents, and several artifacts from the science museum and selected docents. The surveys consisted of 47 items asking about personal biography, docent's perception, docents training program they took, current working conditions, and supplementary professional program. The conclusion of this study is as follows; First, there must be recognition about docents who can play educator's roles which are different from those of general volunteers in terms of recruiting and training system in science museum. Second, docents need to take training and supplementary professional courses that focus on observing and educating visitors in the field. Third, we need a docent management system by employing a well structured evaluating tools. A well established docent system will bring forth the enhancement of science museum education and the increase of science popularization by providing visitors with the quality educational services.

• Korean Association of Arts Management
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• no.57
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• pp.5-32
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to find out what kind of experience docent programs provide to visitors in museums by means of Giorgi's phenomenological method. In-depth interview was conducted with 6 visitors who had experienced firsthand. As a result of the coding based upon Giorgi's method, it was divided into 6 categories and 21 subcategories, and the following results were obtained. First, the reason that the subjects of the study participated in the docent program was due to factors such as information, coincidence, induction of companions, and habits. Second, from participating in the docent guide, they felt that the docent led them to actively visit the exhibition, get the educational effect, and generate interest and curiosity. Third, looking at the reaction after participating in the docent guide, in addition to the positive influence, the docent's reading-like explanation and the problem of the microphone facility were negative experiences. Through this study, it was confirmed that there were many visitors who recognized that the docent guide was helpful in viewing the exhibition and experienced positive reactions. In addition, in the evaluation of the commentary of docent, there was a difference of views between art-related majors and non-majors. In addition, as a result of analyzing the participants' experiences according to Holt's frame of experiential consumption, it was found that the docent experience was a comprehensive consumption behavior appearing in all four fields.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.63-75
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• 2022

In this study, the smart docent interface provided at 25 exhibition halls at domestic and foreign were compared and analyzed based on affordance. Heuristic evaluation techniques were adopted, centered on a small number of experienced people, and six research participants were selected based on Jacob Nielsen's guidelines that five to eight people per set of research can achieve sufficient results. As a result of comparative analysis of affordance, smart docent used in the Oriental showed a higher average value than smart docent used in the Western, but a lower value for sensory affordance alone. In addition, the categories were subdivided to derive the affordance values for each country, and a singularity was found that the sensory affordance of smart docents used in the United States represents the highest value compared to other countries. In conclusion, this study was able to compare the four affordances of smart docents used in domestic and foreign exhibition halls while presenting directions for future behavioral improvement, which could provide practical implication for smart docent interface design and exhibition hall service strategies.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.115-121
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• 2020

This study aims to develop a framework of structural scenarios for chatbot docent that supports visitors' activities in science centers and museums, and to suggest the application examples. For this study, the author adapted Focus Group Interview. As a result, the frameworks of scenarios could be categorized into the Collection of Science and Technology(CST) and Inquiry-Based Exhibition(IBE). These frameworks had dimensions of the primary and storytelling in common. Especially, framework of IBE scenario was added the usage dimension considering the characteristics of interaction between exhibits and visitors. This study could be basic materials for AI chatbot to support exhibition descriptions using the built data, and is expected to be help develop a more visitor-oriented scenarios of activities.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.329-341
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• 2016

With the introduction of smart phones in the late 2000's, the audio guides of museums have been gradually replaced by the mobile apps of smart phones. Although many studies have been already conducted about the mobile apps in the fields of tourism or finance, it is hard to find empirical research on the mobile docent apps. This study aimed to investigate the influence of the various factors of mobile docent apps on user satisfaction and intention to reuse. For this goal, based on the review of literature and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a research model was constructed that consists of information timeliness, information service quality, ubiquitous access, and interactivity, along with the variables of TAM such as perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. A survey was conducted at Rodin museum in the United States where all the information about exhibitions is provided over a smart docent app. 210 surveys were collected, and 204 valid ones were used for analysis. The analysis using structural equation modeling revealed that information timeliness, information service quality, and interactivity have significant influence on perceived ease of use; ubiquitous access and interactivity showed significant impact on perceived usefulness. The perceived ease of use and usefulness then had significant impact on satisfaction and intention to re-use.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.815-835
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• 2010

This study aimed at understanding the characteristics of interactive discourses between docents and visitors in natural history museums. Two docents participated in this study. One worked in Seodaemoon Natural History Museum and the other in Gwacheon National Science Museum. To analyze the characteristics of interactive discourses, especially understanding the mediation of visitors' learning, Pedagogic Discourse Analysis method was adopted. The results show two contrasting types of interactive discourses, Encouraging Visitors' Meaningful Participation (EVMP) and Encouraging Visitors' Simple Participation (EVSP). In the EVMP discourse, structural cohesion is strong in thematic flow and information flow. Docent and visitors share the role of information provider and "Themes" are developed through the interactions between the docent and the visitors. On the contrary, in the EVSP discourse, structural cohesions are weak. Even though the visitors participate in the discourse, their discourse scarcely contribute to develop "Themes" in the discourse. Most of the information is developed and expanded by the docent. These results helped us to suggest that docents have to understand and use visitors' prior knowledge as a discourse "Theme." It is also suggested that docents need to have not only the competent content knowledge about exhibitions but also the capability to lead discourses that allow the visitors to participate meaningfully during the education processes.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.499-510
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to understand interactive learning during docent-led tours in a science museum focusing on scaffolding. We developed a scaffolding framework by collating the work of other researchers in related fields. The results show that scaffolding included three dimensions: purpose, interaction, and domain. The purpose dimension, divided into six categories, is related to the intention of the scaffolder and what the scaffolding are for: strategic, social, procedural, conceptual, verbal, and metacognitive. The interaction dimension reflects students' interaction with the scaffolder in two ways: dynamic (situation specific) and static (planned in advance). The domain dimension is related to two contents: domain-general and domain-specific (such as science). The scaffolding framework was applied to dynamic interactions between docents and visitors. The data was collected from elementary school students' family visits with the guidance of two docents at the Seodaemun Museum of Natural History. The data collected consisted of surveys, interviews, video-recordings, and transcripts. The analysis shows that five guiding contexts and scaffolding phases were recognized; 1) strategic scaffolding in a poorly illustrated exhibit; 2) conceptual scaffolding in a thoroughly explanative exhibit; 3) verbal scaffolding in misleading interpretation; 4) procedural scaffolding in a manipulative exhibit; and 5) metacognitive scaffolding with inaccurate content. In addition, the results show that the docents used the dynamic and static scaffolding synthetically so that the docent-led tour was effective. In conclusion, this study presents the usefulness of understanding visitors' science learning through the scaffolding framework, as well as the how docents can scaffold actively.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.545-556
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• 2017

There are exhibit commentary media (docent, mobile device) for assisting family visitors in the museum, and the communication within family members could be affected by which media they use. When using a docent, family visitors lowered their voice or restrained talks for paying attention to a docent' explanation. When using a mobile device, family visitors mainly relied on a mobile device, so they did not pay attention to the objects. The results of the survey showed that parents reported no difference between the docent and the mobile device on some measurement items and preferred the docent to the mobile device on other measurement items. On the other hand, children showed strong preference toward the mobile deice over the docent because of their enjoyment for operating the mobile device. Regardless of which media they used, the communication among family members could be enhanced by being together. Therefore, the museum should design and operate a docent program for family visitors to enhance the communication among family members. In addition, the museum should consider how family visitors using a mobile device would pay attention to objects and enhance the communication.