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This paper examines important factors in maximizing children's experiential learning in the context of inquiry-based children's museums. Learning is understood as situated in physical, social, and interactive context that is best achieved when children have opportunities to engage in play-based inquiry. Recommendations for maximizing children's learning in museums, supporting children's interactions with peers and adults, and offering affordances for children's play are discussed.

This observational study examines the classroom dynamics occurring in a collaborative math lab activity in a third-grade classroom. Specific classroom interactions are identified as resources for cultivating children's interest and understanding of mathematical knowledge. Dialogic interchange and physical positioning of teacher and students is explained in terms of promoting interest and understanding. Eisner's evaluation model of Educational Connoisseurship and Criticism is adopted as a means of illustrating the dialogic forces that operate within classroom activity which structure children''s learning and motivation.