Investigating a Museum-Based Pop-Up Science Program as a “Learner Centric Ecology of Resources”

As informal learning environments, museums encourage social, interest-driven learning among visitors. Pop-up programs are a kind of museum-based experience that include learning goals, yet offer flexibility based on visitors’ interests and prior knowledge. To evaluate the design of a pop-up science program, we used the Learner Centric Ecology of Resources (LCEoR) model to frame our investigation of learners’ interactions with supportive resources. We used sociocultural discourse analysis and association analysis to identify learners and useful resources, then qualitatively examined how learners related to the intended learning goals of the program (i.e., Knowledge/Curriculum) based on characteristics of their museum visit (i.e., Environment/Organization). As expected from prior research, parents and children acted as learners and resources. However, families’ experiences revealed more agency over Knowledge and Environment than indicated in the original LCEoR model. We modified our representation of the model to illustrate how museum studies can extend this learning sciences framework.