Using the Contextual Model of Learning to Understand Visitor Learning from a Science Center Exhibition.

The article discusses researchers J.H. Falk and L.D. Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning which is a device for organizing the complexities of learning within free-choice settings. The Contextual Model of Learning is not a model in its truest sense; it does not purport to make predictions other than that learning is always a complex phenomenon situated within a series of contexts. More appropriately, the model can be thought of as a framework. The view of learning embodied in this framework is that learning can be conceptualized as a contextually driven effort to make meaning in order to survive and prosper within the world; an effort that is best viewed as a continuous, never-ending dialogue between the individual and his or her physical and sociocultural environment. The Contextual Model of Learning portrays this contextually driven dialogue as the process/product of the interactions between an individual's personal, sociocultural and physical contexts over time. None of these three contexts are ever stable or constant; all are changing across the lifetime of the individual. The article also presents a study which sets out to gain a deeper understanding into the nature of museum learning. The Contextual Model of Learning provided a useful framework for beginning to unravel the complexities of learning from a science center.