John H Falk
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 100776 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | John H Falk |
| NOMBRES | John H |
| APELLIDO | Falk |
| FIRMA | FALK J H |
| AFILIACIONES | Oregon State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7634-899X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 34 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 143 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 34 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1982 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Towards a Valid Measure of the Economic Value of Museum Experiences
This article describes an effort to calculate the public and economic value of museum experiences. A significant feature of the research was its use of outcome metrics grounded in decades of visitor research on the perceived value of visiting a museum. The article lays out the underlying theoretical approach and presents data from a year-long study of visitors to eight Finnish museums. Results showed that museum users perceived that their visit e…
Challenges and Opportunities
This special issue brings selected papers from an international conference which brought a group of approximately 30 Science Technology and Society and Popularization of Science experts from nine South Asian and Southeast Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand), plus the United States. They discussed how best to enhance public awareness about the role of women in Science, Techn…
Making the case for the value of museum experiences
How does one convincingly demonstrate to policy makers and the public the value of museum experiences? I begin to answer this question by asserting that the primary value museum experiences deliver to the public is enhanced personal, intellectual, social and physical well-being. Findings from an initial pilot study conducted with different types of museums from three different countries, showed that individually and collectively all generated sig…
Expanding the Boundaries of Informal Education Programs
For generations educators have been supporting children and youth’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning through informal education programming. Such programming includes a wide variety of outdoor education programs, camp programs, and increasingly targeted STEM programs run afterschool, on weekends, and over the summer months. However, despite the positive impacts these programs have, few would argue that these progr…
Pathways of interest and participation
Despite considerable efforts in recent years to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) interest and participation among youth, STEM interest during adolescence continues to decline. Recently, researchers, educators, and policymakers have used a learning ecology perspective to better understand the development and persistence of youth interest in STEM topics or activities. This study examined the dynamics of the STEM int…
Born to Choose
Born to Choose is John H. Falk’s compelling account of why and how we make the endless set of choices we do, every second of every day of our lives. Synthesizing research from across the biological and social sciences, Falk argues that human choice-making is an evolutionarily ancient and complex process. He suggests that all our choices are influenced by very basic and early evolving needs, and that ultimately each choice is designed to support s…
Landscape Preferences
The Museum Experience Revisited
The first book to take a "visitor's eye view" of the museum visit when it was first published in 1992, The Museum Experience revolutionized the way museum professionals understand their constituents. Falk and Dierking have updated this essential reference, incorporating advances in research, theory, and practice in the museum field over the last twenty years. Written in clear, non-technical style, The Museum Experience Revisited paints a thorough…
Museum audiences
Research on why the public visits museums is presented in order to provide a visitor-centered perspective on the long-running debate about whether museums should position themselves first and foremost as content authorities or as public educators, often dichotomized as ‘quality/education’ versus ‘quantity/entertainment.’ Data from a diversity of museums across the globe reveals that the public currently visits museums in order to satisfy not a si…
Museum education in a changing public landscape
Increasingly, museum educators find themselves trying to balance the need to attract the broadest possible audiences to their institutions, with all the hype and trappings of popular culture that c
Tourism and identity‐related motivations
This paper examines past and present literature relating to identity development and identity‐related tourism motivation. It presents a theoretical model of identity‐related tourism motivation that is based on multidimensional rather than unidimensional theories of identity as well as acknowledging both individual and social influences on identity development. It is argued that identity‐related motivations are fundamental to all tourist experienc…
Mapping the informal science education landscape
This study investigated the informal science education (ISE) field to determine whether it currently functions as an effective community of practice. Research questions included: How do professionals describe and self-identify their practice, including what missions, goals and motivating factors influence their professional work? What challenges do they face and how are these resolved? Is participation in ISE activities perceived as core or perip…
Travel and Learning
Dialogue and Synthesis
This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensen's article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falk's reply, “Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research
Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model
This article represents a companion to an article critiquing Falk's identity-related visitor motivations model. Provided here are a summary of the theory and assumptions that underlie the identity-related visitor motivations model and the empirical approaches that were used to develop the model. Particular attention is directed to clarifying the ways in which the identity-related visitor motivations model has and can be used as a segmentation too…
Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability
The 95 Percent Solution
Critique of a Critique
Marino et al. (2010) recently published a critique of a three-year National Science Foundation—funded investigation of the impact of zoo and aquarium visits on the public’s understanding of animals and their attitudes toward conservation (Falk, Heimlich, & Bronnenkant, 2008; Falk, Reinhard, Vernon, Bronnenkant, Deans, & Heimlich, 2007; Heimlich, Bronnenkant, Witgert, & Falk, 2004). This critique of that critique will show that Marino et al. serio…
Investigating the Role of Emotion in Science Center Visitor Learning
A number of investigators have argued that emotion plays an important role in free-choice learning in settings such as museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums, particularly given the relationship between emotion and cognition. Despite considerable research on the cognitive aspects of visits, empirical studies on emotion in such settings are virtually non-existent. This study investigated the role that emotion plays in facilitating and enhan…
Re-envisioning success in the cultural sector
Although the criteria for determining success as a cultural institution at the beginning of the twenty-first century are still evolving, there are a few universals that are emerging. Successful cultural organizations serve the specific needs of audiences while maximizing the flexibility and ingenuity of their relationships, both inside and outside the organization, all within the context of the economic, social and political realities in which th…
Investigating public science interest and understanding
Historically, most of the focus of science education has been on pre-college and college level schooling. Although some of the public's interest and knowledge about science is unquestionably shaped by compulsory schooling, given that the average adult spends only a fraction of their life participating in some kind of formal schooling, we argue that the contribution of school-based science learning to the long-term public understanding of science …
An Identity‐Centered Approach to Understanding Museum Learning
This paper advances the thesis that museum visitors' identities, motivations and learning are inextricably intertwined. All individuals enact multiple identities, many of which are situational and constructed in response to a social and physical context. Identity influences motivations, which in turn directly influence behavior and learning. Visitors to museums tend to enact one or various combinations of five museum‐specific identities, describe…
Using the contextual model of learning to understand visitor learning from a science center exhibition
Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning was used as a theoretical construct for investigating learning within a free-choice setting. A review of previous research identified key variables fundamental to free-choice science learning. The study sought to answer two questions: (1) How do specific independent variables individually contribute to learning outcomes when not studied in isolation? and (2) Does the Contextual Model of Learning pr…
Free‐choice environmental learning
Education is a lifelong endeavor; the public learns in many places and contexts, for a diversity of reasons, throughout their lives. During the past couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness that free‐choice learning experiences – learning experiences where the learner exercises a large degree of choice and control over the what, when and why of learning – play a major role in lifelong learning. Worldwide, most environmental learning …
Learning science from museums
This article provides an overview of current understandings of the science learning that occurs as a consequence of visiting a free-choice learning setting like a science museum. The best available evidence indicates that if you want to understand learning at the level of individuals within the real world, learning does functionally differ depending upon the conditions, i. e., the context, under which it occurs. Hence, learning in museums is diff…
Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability
Travel and Learning
Free‐choice environmental learning
Education is a lifelong endeavor; the public learns in many places and contexts, for a diversity of reasons, throughout their lives. During the past couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness that free‐choice learning experiences – learning experiences where the learner exercises a large degree of choice and control over the what, when and why of learning – play a major role in lifelong learning. Worldwide, most environmental learning …
Global Warming
GLOBAL WARMING: UNDERSTANDING THE FORECAST. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (May 15, 1992 - January 19, 1993); Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County (April 3 - July 25, 1993); Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA (September 24,1993 - February 13, 1994); Denver Museum of Natural History (November 24, 1994 - March 26, 1995); St. Louis Science Center (May 26 - October 15, 1995); National Museum of Natural History, Washi…
Critique of a Critique
Marino et al. (2010) recently published a critique of a three-year National Science Foundation—funded investigation of the impact of zoo and aquarium visits on the public’s understanding of animals and their attitudes toward conservation (Falk, Heimlich, & Bronnenkant, 2008; Falk, Reinhard, Vernon, Bronnenkant, Deans, & Heimlich, 2007; Heimlich, Bronnenkant, Witgert, & Falk, 2004). This critique of that critique will show that Marino et al. serio…
Museum audiences
Research on why the public visits museums is presented in order to provide a visitor-centered perspective on the long-running debate about whether museums should position themselves first and foremost as content authorities or as public educators, often dichotomized as ‘quality/education’ versus ‘quantity/entertainment.’ Data from a diversity of museums across the globe reveals that the public currently visits museums in order to satisfy not a si…
Factors Influencing African American Leisure Time Utilization of Museums
This study investigated variables that influence the utilization of museums by African Americans. A sample of 333 African Americans from six Eastern U.S. communities were interviewed at home about their leisure activities; particularly, their use of museum-like settings. Key variables that influenced museum visits were income, education, the community in which individuals lived, childhood experiences and participation in church-related activities…
Re-envisioning success in the cultural sector
Although the criteria for determining success as a cultural institution at the beginning of the twenty-first century are still evolving, there are a few universals that are emerging. Successful cultural organizations serve the specific needs of audiences while maximizing the flexibility and ingenuity of their relationships, both inside and outside the organization, all within the context of the economic, social and political realities in which th…
Learning science from museums
This article provides an overview of current understandings of the science learning that occurs as a consequence of visiting a free-choice learning setting like a science museum. The best available evidence indicates that if you want to understand learning at the level of individuals within the real world, learning does functionally differ depending upon the conditions, i. e., the context, under which it occurs. Hence, learning in museums is diff…
Towards a Valid Measure of the Economic Value of Museum Experiences
This article describes an effort to calculate the public and economic value of museum experiences. A significant feature of the research was its use of outcome metrics grounded in decades of visitor research on the perceived value of visiting a museum. The article lays out the underlying theoretical approach and presents data from a year-long study of visitors to eight Finnish museums. Results showed that museum users perceived that their visit e…
Museum education in a changing public landscape
Increasingly, museum educators find themselves trying to balance the need to attract the broadest possible audiences to their institutions, with all the hype and trappings of popular culture that c
Development of Visual Preference for Natural Environments
Human visual preferences for slides of five natural landscapes or biomes-tropical rain forest, temperate deciduous forest, coniferous forest, savanna, and desert-were examined. Subjects were third graders, sixth graders, ninth graders, college students, adults, senior citizens, and a group of professional foresters. A series of 20 slides, 4 examples of each biome, was shown twice to each group of subjects. On one pass through the slides, subjects…
Chapter 6
Museum learning involves a wide range of recollections about a diverse set of experiences encountered over the course of a museum visit. Three key features are: 1) visitors “learn” about many different aspects of a visit (not just exhibits); 2) experiences are stored in memory and are recallable; and 3) learned experiences persist for long periods of time (i.e., months, years and decades). A series of pilot ethnographic style interviews were cond…
Invisible Forces Exhibition
The California Museum of Science and Industry's Invisible Forces exhibition was designed to convey specific concepts related to electricity and magnetism, capture visitor interest for durations of 15 minutes or more of continuous use, be self-contained and comprehensible without reference to other exhibits or extensive text, and appeal to a broad range of ages and backgrounds. The task for this project was: (1) to determine how well the Invisible…
Global Warming
GLOBAL WARMING: UNDERSTANDING THE FORECAST. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (May 15, 1992 - January 19, 1993); Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles County (April 3 - July 25, 1993); Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA (September 24,1993 - February 13, 1994); Denver Museum of Natural History (November 24, 1994 - March 26, 1995); St. Louis Science Center (May 26 - October 15, 1995); National Museum of Natural History, Washi…
Utilizing Museums to Promote Public Understanding of Science
The Museum Experience
Journal Article The Museum Experience. By John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking. (Washington: Whalesback, 1992. xviii, 205 pp. Cloth, $36.00, ISBN 0-929590-06-6. Paper, $17.95, ISBN 0-929590-07-4.) Get access Jo Blatti Jo Blatti Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 80, Issue 4, March 1994, Pages 1553–1554, https://doi.org/10.2307/208075…
Factors Influencing African American Leisure Time Utilization of Museums
This study investigated variables that influence the utilization of museums by African Americans. A sample of 333 African Americans from six Eastern U.S. communities were interviewed at home about their leisure activities; particularly, their use of museum-like settings. Key variables that influenced museum visits were income, education, the community in which individuals lived, childhood experiences and participation in church-related activities…
Recent advances in the neurosciences
T he Effect of Visitors ‘ Agendas on Museum Learning
It has been argued that visitors' pre‐visit “agendas” directly influence visits. This study attempted to directly test the effects of different museum visit agendas on visitor learning. Two new tools were developed for this purpose: (1) a tool for measuring visitor agendas; and (2) a tool for measuring visitor learning (Personal Meaning Mapping). Visitor agenda was defined as having two dimensions: motivations and strategies. Personal Meaning Map…
Using the contextual model of learning to understand visitor learning from a science center exhibition
Falk and Dierking's Contextual Model of Learning was used as a theoretical construct for investigating learning within a free-choice setting. A review of previous research identified key variables fundamental to free-choice science learning. The study sought to answer two questions: (1) How do specific independent variables individually contribute to learning outcomes when not studied in isolation? and (2) Does the Contextual Model of Learning pr…
Free‐choice environmental learning
Education is a lifelong endeavor; the public learns in many places and contexts, for a diversity of reasons, throughout their lives. During the past couple of decades, there has been a growing awareness that free‐choice learning experiences – learning experiences where the learner exercises a large degree of choice and control over the what, when and why of learning – play a major role in lifelong learning. Worldwide, most environmental learning …
Learning science from museums
This article provides an overview of current understandings of the science learning that occurs as a consequence of visiting a free-choice learning setting like a science museum. The best available evidence indicates that if you want to understand learning at the level of individuals within the real world, learning does functionally differ depending upon the conditions, i. e., the context, under which it occurs. Hence, learning in museums is diff…
An Identity‐Centered Approach to Understanding Museum Learning
This paper advances the thesis that museum visitors' identities, motivations and learning are inextricably intertwined. All individuals enact multiple identities, many of which are situational and constructed in response to a social and physical context. Identity influences motivations, which in turn directly influence behavior and learning. Visitors to museums tend to enact one or various combinations of five museum‐specific identities, describe…
Investigating public science interest and understanding
Historically, most of the focus of science education has been on pre-college and college level schooling. Although some of the public's interest and knowledge about science is unquestionably shaped by compulsory schooling, given that the average adult spends only a fraction of their life participating in some kind of formal schooling, we argue that the contribution of school-based science learning to the long-term public understanding of science …
Re-envisioning success in the cultural sector
Although the criteria for determining success as a cultural institution at the beginning of the twenty-first century are still evolving, there are a few universals that are emerging. Successful cultural organizations serve the specific needs of audiences while maximizing the flexibility and ingenuity of their relationships, both inside and outside the organization, all within the context of the economic, social and political realities in which th…
Investigating the Role of Emotion in Science Center Visitor Learning
A number of investigators have argued that emotion plays an important role in free-choice learning in settings such as museums, science centers, zoos, and aquariums, particularly given the relationship between emotion and cognition. Despite considerable research on the cognitive aspects of visits, empirical studies on emotion in such settings are virtually non-existent. This study investigated the role that emotion plays in facilitating and enhan…
The 95 Percent Solution
Critique of a Critique
Marino et al. (2010) recently published a critique of a three-year National Science Foundation—funded investigation of the impact of zoo and aquarium visits on the public’s understanding of animals and their attitudes toward conservation (Falk, Heimlich, & Bronnenkant, 2008; Falk, Reinhard, Vernon, Bronnenkant, Deans, & Heimlich, 2007; Heimlich, Bronnenkant, Witgert, & Falk, 2004). This critique of that critique will show that Marino et al. serio…
Dialogue and Synthesis
This brief synthesis presents the main points of agreement between Dawson and Jensen's article, “‘Towards a ‘Contextual Turn’ in Visitor Studies: Evaluating Visitor Segmentation and Identity-Related Motivations” (this issue) and Falk's reply, “Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model” (this issue), and it highlights important considerations for future research
Contextualizing Falk's Identity-Related Visitor Motivation Model
This article represents a companion to an article critiquing Falk's identity-related visitor motivations model. Provided here are a summary of the theory and assumptions that underlie the identity-related visitor motivations model and the empirical approaches that were used to develop the model. Particular attention is directed to clarifying the ways in which the identity-related visitor motivations model has and can be used as a segmentation too…
Visitors’ learning for environmental sustainability
Mapping the informal science education landscape
This study investigated the informal science education (ISE) field to determine whether it currently functions as an effective community of practice. Research questions included: How do professionals describe and self-identify their practice, including what missions, goals and motivating factors influence their professional work? What challenges do they face and how are these resolved? Is participation in ISE activities perceived as core or perip…
Travel and Learning
Tourism and identity‐related motivations
This paper examines past and present literature relating to identity development and identity‐related tourism motivation. It presents a theoretical model of identity‐related tourism motivation that is based on multidimensional rather than unidimensional theories of identity as well as acknowledging both individual and social influences on identity development. It is argued that identity‐related motivations are fundamental to all tourist experienc…
Landscape Preferences
Museums and Cultural Heritage (19 obras) · Psychology (18 obras) · Sociology (17 obras) · Computer Science (15 obras) · Political science (14 obras) · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research (11 obras) · Art (10 obras) · Public relations (9 obras) · Recreation, Leisure, Wilderness Management (8 obras) · Social Psychology (8 obras)