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This paper focuses on the donation in 1888 of a Sèvres Vase to the Education Department of Victoria after the International Exhibition in Melbourne. Using the vase as its focus the paper reflects on what this donation may be able to tell us about the impact, primarily on education, of a series of International Exhibitions held both in Australia and internationally between 1851 and 1900. The life of the Sèvres vase highlights the potential of the Exhibitions for the exchange of ideas internationally, the influence of the International Exhibition movement on education and the links between a 19th-century gift and the teaching of Art in 1930s Melbourne.

The paper examines one object in relation to education in its wider historical context through a reading of the archival records relating to the Melbourne Teacher’s Training College and Melbourne High School.

The influence of the educational exhibits of the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition held in Melbourne are shown to have had an impact on the design of the Melbourne Teachers Training College.

This paper provides a new and original perspective on the Melbourne Teachers Training College and its foundation through its library and museum collections.

In 1870, after a decade of vigorous public debate over the economic importance of technical and scientific learning for the colony’s development, the Industrial and Technological Museum was established in the city of Melbourne ‘as a means of public instruction’ for the people of Victoria. Founded in February 1870 and officially opened on 8 September 1870, the new public museum occupied the building erected at the rear of the Public Library for the 1866 International Exhibition. The Industrial and Technological Museum, later the Science Museum and now part of Museum Victoria, was directed by J. Cosmo Newbery and managed by a sectional committee of the Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery of Victoria Trust, which Parliament had incorporated and enlarged in December 1869.

The US educational system is on the cusp of transformational change. Signals that the current educational structure has been destabilized include rising dissatisfaction with the formal educational system and the proliferation of non‐traditional forms of primary education. In the coming era, museums will play a key role in the new educational landscape. A broad and shared understanding among policy makers, reformers and practitioners of the unique capabilities of museums will ensure that the new educational infrastructure takes full advantage of these strengths. This paper seeks to discuss these issues.

This paper provides an overview of educational innovation in a broad cross section of US museums, citing selected examples.

There is an emerging consensus that whatever the new educational era looks like, it will focus on the development of a core set of skills. This paper reviews some ways in which museums are helping learners develop the core skills of critical thinking, synthesizing information, ability to innovate and think creatively, and collaboration. The USA needs to scale up the educational resources and skills provided by its museums via online access, better indexing of online resources, physically incorporating museums into schools and schools into museums, and making museums central points for teacher training. This will ensure museums can provide equitable access to their unique resources and fulfill their potential in the new educational landscape.

By applying the techniques of forecasting to the field of education, this paper provides glimpses of potential futures as seen in the vibrant innovations in education currently taking place outside traditional schools.

Considerable overlap exists between the disciplines of library and information science and museum studies. Exploiting the overlap and examining those areas were library/museum instruction courses diverge may provide valuable insights for how to improve the quality of these courses and better prepare students for instructional roles in both disciplines.

Word frequency and thematic analysis of the instructional course descriptions for all 52 American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Science programs in the USA and 49 museum studies and affiliated (e.g. MA in anthropology with museum studies concentration) programs is performed.

Each discipline has some specific language to describe tasks specific to itself (e.g. museums), but these comprise a small percentage of the total language usage. Among other terms and themes, overlap occurs at a rate of about 50%. The remaining 35-45% of terms and themes reveal areas that are emphasized in only one discipline, but could be beneficial to incorporate in the curriculum/content in both disciplines.

This research builds on a growing corpus of work demonstrating relations between museum studies and library and information science, and their status within a metadiscipline of information; this research presents a comparison of course content that may inform future curriculum/content development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study of this type has been performed with museum studies courses, nor has a comparison between the two disciplines been investigated at this level.

This paper aims to develop a curriculum-based virtual and physical mobile (CVPM) learning model, which integrates related physical and e-learning resources associated with elementary school curricula and supports elementary education.

This model provides a highly participative and well-monitored environment with fruitful interactions among students, teachers and museum staff. A practical system was implemented in the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan.

The results show that the proposed model can effectively extend related learning resources to satisfy the requirements of elementary education. In addition, this model can engage students’ self-directed explorations through problem-solving learning content during the learning process.

This learning model was implemented in a one-day theme-based learning activity. Generic learning outcomes and qualitative analysis were used to examine the students’ perceptions and the teachers’ feedback of this learning model, respectively.

The results show that both students and teachers highly appreciated this learning model. The model not only strengthens the connection between museum and elementary curricula but also enhances students’ perceptions and positive attitudes toward natural science courses. Finally, this study offers suggestions for future research.

This study develops a CVPM learning model which integrates elementary school courses to satisfy the requirements of elementary education and meet museums’ educational strategies for schools. The practical learning system and services have been successfully implemented and are widely available to elementary schools in Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is to present a perspective on the development of digital curation education and practice in museums in the USA.

Methods used include: a historical overview of the development of digital curation, originally as a field of practice – primarily in the sciences – and then as a field of study; a case study of the adaptation of a digital curation curriculum (DigCCurr) framework developed in schools of library and information science (LIS) to a museum studies program; and a discussion of trends in digital curation practices in museums.

The case study (the digital curation certificate program of Johns Hopkins University’s museum studies program) describes a successful adaptation of the LIS DigCCurr framework in a museum studies program.

Findings could help to advance the museum field through the integration of digital curation education, practice and research.

By adopting and supporting digital curation practices, education and research, museums can reach and engage more online users seeking information about museum collections. More online users may also become onsite visitors.

There is little existing literature on digital curation education in museum studies programs.

As content acquisition is often conceived of as the primary goal of a museum visit, advice for social studies teachers on making the most of field trips primarily focuses on ways to increase the information absorbed by students. Yet, research in museum studies provides ample evidence for questioning this underlying assumption. This article presents a former museum professional’s view on the educational potential of museum spaces, suggesting critical inquiry is a key skill of museum literacy. First, a historical view of museums shows how society has inscribed the institutions and their content with unwarranted authority. Secondly, an insider’s view of the exhibit creation process raises questions about the nature of the content we are often eager for students to consume. Third, an overview of research in museum studies offers an alternative understanding of the nature of learning in museum spaces. Finally, practical suggestions are given for valuing critical inquiry as part of museum literacy. For social studies educators interested in empowering their students to become reflective citizens, a key component of museum literacy will be critical engagement with not only the narratives on display, but also the institutions that house them.

As content acquisition is often conceived of as the primary goal of a museum visit, advice for social studies teachers on making the most of field trips primarily focuses on ways to increase the information absorbed by students. Yet, research in museum studies provides ample evidence for questioning this underlying assumption. This article presents a former museum professional’s view on the educational potential of museum spaces, suggesting critical inquiry is a key skill of museum literacy. First, a historical view of museums shows how society has inscribed the institutions and their content with unwarranted authority. Secondly, an insider’s view of the exhibit creation process raises questions about the nature of the content we are often eager for students to consume. Third, an overview of research in museum studies offers an alternative understanding of the nature of learning in museum spaces. Finally, practical suggestions are given for valuing critical inquiry as part of museum literacy. For social studies educators interested in empowering their students to become reflective citizens, a key component of museum literacy will be critical engagement with not only the narratives on display, but also the institutions that house them.

This study aims to present a meta-analysis of the use of serious educational games in museums. The analysis is based on a critical literature review that maps educational roles of museums against serious educational games used in support of those roles. The meta-analysis focuses on the specific context of informal learning in museums.

The research design presented in this study is based on a meta-analysis research design that consists of a critical literature review, a multi-matrix representation of findings of the literature review and a conceptual visualization of the multidisciplinary area of the usage of serious games in support of educational roles in museums.

Clear and detailed categorizations of educational roles and serious games types for informal learning are presented. These are followed by matching these educational roles with published reports of the use of serious games within museums. The study concludes with observations and a conceptual map of the design of serious games for museums.

This study presents the first meta-analysis of research in this emergent multidisciplinary field. It will help serious game designers, museum educators and educational practitioners to make decisions regarding the choice of game type, customization and content design to support informal learning in the specific context of museum educational activities.

This paper aims to analyse the quality of experience in the Italian art museum context and to understand the mediating role of satisfaction between museum experiences and visitors' word-of-mouth (WOM) behavioural intentions.

This exploratory study adopted a quantitative methodology. Visitors to Italian art museums were interviewed, and the results were examined using exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis.

The analysis shows that the following museum experience dimensions were present in the Italian art museum context: aesthetics, escapism and “edumotion”. Further, these dimensions positively affected visitors' overall satisfaction which mediates on WOM behavioural intentions.

The small sample limits the generalisability of findings, and further research on the topic is recommended.

Museums should allocate resources to improve visitor experience, visitor satisfaction and museum attractions. Specifically, museum managers should invest in the three dimensions that emerged from this study.

This study enriches the empirical evidence on experiential marketing in the museum context by focussing on the mediating role of overall satisfaction in the relationship between museum experience and WOM behaviours. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study investigating this phenomenon in Italian museums.