• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.134-143
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• 2007

This study explores visitor learning in a natural history museum from the perspectives of situated learning. The purpose of this study is to understand how the visitors construct knowledge from museum experiences through dyadic discourses. The participants were two university students. They moved naturally through the exhibition with no predetermined path in a natural history museum in Korea. Data were collected in the form of audio-recorded dyadic discourses at and between exhibits and were transcribed. The transcription was coded using the conversation coding scheme, and categorized into specific learning types. The findings included (1) the characteristics of learning talks and (2) learning types created by dyadic discourses at and between exhibitions within learning contexts as museum learning experiences. Implications and future research related to visitor learning in informal learning settings were discussed based on the findings.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.832-847
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• 2007

The purpose of the study was to analyze and interpret parent-child dyadic discourses in depth with emphases on the ZPD system in a museum, an informal learning setting. Second graders and their parents from Seoul and its environs were voluntarily participated in the study. Data were collected from the museum documents, the photos of exhibits, and the video recordings of dyadic discourses at and between exhibits. The documents and the photos were analyzed to investigate what the topics, medium and goals of the exhibits were. The video recordings were all transcribed and analyzed to understand what and how they talked to each other through the lens of the ZPD system; situation definition, intersubjectivity, and semiotic mediation, The results of the study consisted of two parts. First, it showed that parent-child dyadic discourses were categorized in four: (1) within the actual developmental level; (2) in the zone of proximal development; (3) toward the potential developmental level; and (4) out of developmental level. The most common categories were the dyadic discourses within the actual developmental level and in the zone of proxima I development. Second, the representative cases in each categories were described and interpreted to understand the nature of parent-child dyadic discourses. It can be concluded that we gained some important understandings of an intrinsic attribute of parent-child discourses in a museum, an informal learning setting. Based on the results of the study, it can be suggested that museums make efforts to cultivate the affordance of exhibit environment to promote visitor's learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.127-140
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of children's interactive learning focusing on the Vygotsky's ZPD (the zone of proximal development) in a natural history museum as a representative free-choice learning context. We focused on the understanding of peer dyadic discourses and data were collected from 13 peer groups of children (3rd and 4th graders) who were videotaped all conversations occurred as they visited around the exhibits with no predetermined path. The transcribed data were analyzed by the developmental level of ZPD system and the discourse within an ADL (an actual developmental level) was overwhelmingly common in the conversations between child-child dyads. The representative discourse by discourse types were parsed according to three constructs of ZPD. Children formed the intersubjectivity through semiotic mediation such as conversations and exhibits and ended up with the similar situation definition. In conclusion, the details of discourses of the most impressive dyad were looked into focusing on the scientific concept. The study implies that a natural history museum becomes a meaningful resource to offer a deeper understanding of the nature of children's learning as an informal learning setting.