Abstract

Learning is essential to our existence, a fundamental part of humanity. It is an individual and social process that humans are constantly engaged in, both consciously and unconsciously. Learning occurs across a wide range of contexts and situations, in both formal and informal settings, including museums. In studying learning, however, much of the emphasis has been on what, where and how people learn. There has been little research that seeks to uncover why people learn and how they view themselves as a learner across a variety of learning contexts, including museums. My research question is How do adult museum visitors describe learning, with a number of qualitative and quantitative studies undertaken. This paper presents initial results from this research and identifies issues for further consideration.