本章阐述了有关个人与家庭群体在互动博物馆环境里学习的理论与实践，发现了观众的博物馆体验有赖于个人的、社会的和物理情境的不同。在传统的博物馆学习就好比传统的授课方式，是展教人员通过叙事故事线将他们所拥有的专业知识传授给观众，这种传授方式是渐进式的、线性的。在动手型展览里，也不可避免地会向观众传递博物馆“专家”方想要观众接受的那些信息，但是传递方法是让观众自己去探索发现，而不是被灌输知识。儿童博物馆的展品就应该是与儿童所熟悉的环境相配的。而在科学中心里，展品的组合方式是根据一定的物理过程（physical process）而定的，不管哪种方式，都不再是传统意义上线性的模式，因此每个单独展品又是独立的、可以单独体验的。当然，就像费赫尔的研究表明的，观众很有可能带着被误导的观念离开，这也正是许多科学家观察动手型科学中心时发现的麻烦，也是为什么评估都会非常在意观众所获得的信息。[60]但是，理论研究表明观众是从经验中学习，继而在自身经验的基础上通过与各种展品的互动学习，这个过程中会挑战他们固有的观念，改正他们以往错误的理解。

不管是传统的学习还是发现式的学习都有一个预设，那就是有一个正确的知识体的存在，在这样的预设下不同的展示手段不过是用不同的方式使得观众能到达“真理”的世界。还有一种理论模式较少地关注知识体本身的重要性，而是关注学习的过程，尤其是关注观众的兴趣与需求。建构主义认为学习者不是简单的在原有知识的基础上添加新的知识，而是随着他们与世界的互动而持续性地对所获得信息进行再加工，也就是说，他们通过与世界的互动不断地建构自身的知识。

建构主义博物馆接受观众基于访问中个人、社会与物理语境来建构知识的观点。文字等辅助材料是用来满足作为主体的观众教育需求的，而不是为展品这一客体的叙事故事线服务的，也不是作为社会、政治、文化或历史的背景，或是藏品本身的属性的。也就是说，展品的诠释没有单一的路径，由于每件展品都是独立的，那么观众可能随时会进来或离开一个展厅。博物馆要用各种各样的手段来引导和刺激加德纳所提出的四种智力。博物馆要提供机会让观众接触他们所熟悉的观念和事物，因为只有与观众的生活有联系的东西，他们才会感兴趣，也才有可能加强或挑战他们已有的知识，从而使他们在博物馆的经历变得有意义。[61]

简单来说，建构主义博物馆鼓励观众通过与展品互动来探索世界，发现世界，从而建构自身的知识，观众可以对展览的意义做出自己的结论。在皮亚杰等心理学家的理论基础上，许多儿童博物馆采纳了建构主义的原则。通过提供动手操作、亲身经历的机会，建构主义博物馆用动手型展品、科技藏品及其他媒介或许能真正地为不同的人群和各个年龄段的人提供最好的学习机会。就像最近英国的博物馆教育报道所指出的：“不管是成人还是儿童，都需要一个开放式的博物馆学习环境，可以让他们自由探索，鼓励他们去质疑和挑战。”[62]

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[4] This structure is used by other authors，notably J.H.Falk and L.D.Dierking，The Museum Experience，Washington，DC：Whalesback Books，1994.

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[40] The author gratefully acknowledges the permission granted by the Athlone Press to use material which previously appeared in a similar form in Thomas，G.and Caulton，T.，‘Communication strategies in interactive spaces’，in Pearce，S.（ed.），New Research in Museum Studies：Vol.6 Exploring Science in Museums，London：Athlone Press，1996，pp.107-22.

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