1. Developmental Section Annual Conference, Amsterdam.
“It’s for old things and dinosaur teeth!” Children’s understanding of natural history museums
Dr. Louise Bunce
3rd – 5th Sept 2014
Developmental Section Annual Conference, Amsterdam.
Introduction
Natural History Museums (NHM) provide important opportunities for developing children’s learning about the biodiversity of the natural world.
NHMs are proud to display real, authentic biofacts because interacting with the real thing is thought to promote curiosity and engagement (Evans, 2002).
Previous research shows that preschool children understand the difference between authentic and fake (Bunce & Harris, 2013), and judge objects such as the very first teddy bear as museum-worthy (Frazier et al., 2010; Gelman et al., 2014).
This study examined children’s understanding of the authenticity and museum-worthiness of taxidermy. In one condition it was ‘touchable’ and in another condition is was presented in a protective case.
Aims:
To assess whether children judge taxidermy as authentic or ‘real’ and museum-worthy
To assess whether the presence of a protective case affected these judgments
To assess children’s general understanding of the purpose of NHMs.
Figure 3: A word cloud depicting the most common words in response to the question “What is a museum for?”
Method
Figure 1: A 9-year-old participating in the taxidermy in a protective case (Condition 2)
Four age groups took part:
4-5-year-olds n = year-olds n = 47
8-10-year-olds n = Adults n = 23
Condition 1 - Touchable n = 79
Condition 2 - Protective case n = 78 (see Fig. 1).
Most were white (87%) and 44% had visited a NHM once or twice in the last 2 years, 35% had visited 3 or more times, and 20% had never visited.
The research took place in the main gallery of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Participants were asked, in a random order,
1) Is it real? Why?
2) Does it belong in a museum? Why?
3) What is a museum for?
Results
The percentage of children who judged the taxidermy as real and belonging in a museum is shown in Figure 2. There was no effect of whether the taxidermy was in a case, but there was an age x question interaction.
Figure 2: Percent of participants who agreed to each question according to age.
Next, each participant was categorised according to how they responded to each question. Most children said the taxidermy belonged in a museum but was not real whereas most adults said it was real and belonged in a museum (see below).
‘Life’ Justifications
‘Authenticity’ Justifications
Discussion
It has real fur and real actual ears
In the touchable condition, 75% were Authenticity justifications and 25% were Life justifications.
In the protective case condition 33% were Authenticity justifications and 67% were Life justifications.
What is a museum for?
Figure 3 provides an overview of participant’s responses. There was an increase with age in understanding that the museum was to educate: Common themes were:
4-5-yrs = looking at dinosaurs
6-7-yrs = looking and learning about dead animals
8-10-yrs = studying animals worldwide, historically
Adults = education about natural history
It was alive before it died
Why is it real/ not real?
This study explored children’s and adults’ perceptions of whether taxidermy is real and belongs in a museum.
Whether the taxidermy was touchable or in a protective case did not affect the number of judgments that it was real (touchable 46% vs case 45%) or belonged in a museum (touchable 68% vs case 71%). However, justifications were affected by condition: in the touchable condition they largely referred to authentic/fake aspects whereas in the case condition they largely referred to the previously alive/now dead aspects of taxidermy.
These data extend previous research on children’s understanding of the relationship between real/not-real status and museum-worthiness. They also have useful implications for supporting children’s learning in museums of natural history.
It’s hard and you can’t move its ears
It’s stuffed so it’s not alive now
It’s a model
It’s dead
Children
Adults %
Not Real
Real
Not Belong in Museum 17 9
Belong in Museum 47 19 83
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