Pedagogy

Visitor Motivations and Expectations
As stated by Falk  Dierking (2000), motivations and expectations that visitors have directly impact what they do and learn in museums. Subsequent studies developed by Moreno Gil and associates (2009) and Aalst van and Boogaarts (2002) have supported this perspective citing that motivations create the foundation of visitors response to exhibits. When expectations are met during the visit, learning is more likely to be facilitated. In addition, intrinsically motivated learners are more likely to succeed in learning. Applying these principles as a basis of comparing the Getty and CAMIT exhibits, show that sensitivity and responsiveness of exhibitor designers and museum administrators to these factors is directly to the success of exhibits. This also highlights the need for museums to understand how they function in society and how the public creates these perceptions (Dibley, 2005).

Data and observations from the parent-visitors to the CAMIT exhibit in Taiwan suggest that the primary motivation for their museum visits is for the purpose of education. Thus, there is also an expectation that exhibits will be able to teach or support learning. Most visitors opt to join guided tours for their first visits but show also a degree of independence as observed in their utility of exhibits labels, activities and interactive available for free access. Even more, they personally solicit information and guidance from the Museum Feis father asserted, This place is so much fun to play with and a child can get very excited about it. I do not think that Fei would learn anything if she did not join the guided tour.  This sentiment has been echoed among other parents as well, interviews emphasized the educational perspective over the entertaining perspective.

In contrast, adult visitors at the Getty tend to use their visit to the Family Room as a way to relax and an opportunity to let their children play. Though this is not to indicate that there is less recognition or appreciation of the educational value of the exhibits, but as indicated by the interview of Edwards, parents use the Family Room as a place to let off the steam of the children The expectation is to play and to spend an enjoyable afternoon together, instead of learning.  Another contrast is that though the gallery space provided very minimum information on the art object, none of the parents interviewed requested more information on the object or guidance in learning about the objects. While their children explore the interactives at the coves, some of the parents sat at the bench chatting with each other or take a nap. This reinforces observations from Getty adult visitors expectation and motivation to take a break or to relax in the Family Room can also be seen in the observation.

This shows how motivations and expectations affected how the parents utilized the exhibit features parent-visitors to the CAMIT where more likely to exhaust the educational components of the exhibits while parent-visitors were more likely to focus on the recreational potential of the exhibits. According to Milligan, Melinda and Brayfield (2004) point out these differences in motivation do not diminish the values of exhibits for either purpose but establishes the initial requirements of effective interaction. This suggests that though individual motivations and expectations can affect how families will go about the exhibit space, value is still crated from the fulfillment of their individual motivations and expectations from the visit.

Different expertise different perspective
Comparison of the two exhibits also served to highlight how difference in professional expertise and perspective has affected the CAMIT and Gettys FR exhibit. One rationale for these differences has been the focus of research developed by Wineman and Peponis (2010) they suggest that these factors are fundamental on all aspects of the design, particularly the spatial design of the museum, which in turn becomes fundamental to how the exhibit is to be utilized by visitors. Brookshaw (2009) also point out that professional competencies are critical to how materials are going to be designed for the utilization of the exhibit. This implies that the ability of professionals to interpret their visitors motivations and purpose in visiting in the exhibits is reflective of their expertise and perspectives on the purpose of the exhibits.

As seen in the CAMIT exhibit, the design reflects the expertise and perspective of artist educators knowledge in art, materials, and children. The artist educators used this designing process as an opportunity to experiment with art materials. For example, the designers of the CAMIT exhibit used the base of a fan to create a head that can turn around in the My Many Sides gallery space. They used parts of an umbrella, such as the tube, rib, and stretcher, as the inside structure or support, for each of the flowers at the Metallic Garden gallery.  This reflects designers perspective regarding how the audience can best relate to the content of the exhibit. At the same time, this illustrated the level of creativity and competency of the exhibit designers in utilizing material s the visitors can relate and learn from. Moreover, their design of the activity also reflects the terms or duration of the exhibits which are not necessarily considered to be a permanent component of the museum.

In the case of the exhibits at the Getty, the designers, who were educators specializing in children and family, architects, gave on public education of the museums permanent collections. In additional to being a reflection of the perspectives and field of expertise of the designers, but also how they are carrying out the professional requirements of the museum as a whole (Stephen, 2003). As a traditional art museum, the Center has the mission to interpret and to educate general public about the objects in its permanent collection. Thus the designers take into close consideration the Centers declared mission to interpret and to educate the general public about its permanent collections. This supports the one of the main objectives of the development of FR exhibit which was to engage visitors to the FR to develop an interest in the collections featured in the main exhibit halls of the Getty. As reflected in the design of the FR, the interactive at each space in the FR is designed to interpret the selected object for family visitors. Examples of the Curators point of view are respected in the design process such as in the The bed, selecting the fabric, the pillow, that had patterns close to the original fabric and style.

Role of exhibition labels
Current research suggested that theories related to constructivist museum design have been widely accepted by the museum field (Dove, 2008 Heath  van Lehm, 2008). This is supported by research developed from both new and established museums and exhibits this has also become even more critical in consideration of diversity and differences in learning needs (Grenier, 2009 Bell, 2008). The interactive art galleries at the CAMIT and the Getty can both be identified as exhibitions that enhance characteristics of constructivist museum which was suggested by Hein. Moreover, the development of these new museum and exhibit strategies and perspectives reflects how much these institutions are being perceived and utilized by the public.

At the CAMIT A Vastly Different Perspective, most of the objectives of the exhibition are explicitly stated in the interactive gallery environment.  The labels and other museum documents clearly stated how artists think about and apply concepts related to perspectives to their art-making.  In this manner, the exhibition labels not only as a source of information for visitors but also relationship tool to facilitate not only communication but also participation. With the support of education tours that scheduled hourly to guide parents and children to learn about and to hands-on explore the artistic concepts imbedded in each interactive gallery, the exhibition labels become a reference point for future independent visits as well as a tool learning reinforcement.

As the data indicated, during and even after the museum visits, parents at CAMIT were able to use the information provided regarding perspectives to interact with children. For instance, at the Worms Eye, Birds Eye, Lia lifted Fei up and created an imaginary scene with her that she is flying like to bird in the sky to observe the city down below. She then crawled on the floor with Fei suggested that they became worms crawling on the city street and observed the buildings from different perspective. Similar, Yo-Yu were able to use the concepts explained about perspectives to teach  and to demonstrate to his father the concepts explained. Yo-Yu embraced the concepts and information that he learned at the interactive gallery and through social interaction he presented his learning in the gallery environment. Along the same line, Tais mother used the information provided to initiate conversation and to visually analyze the content of the gallery exhibition with Tai collaboratively. The information presented at the labels had an effective impact on visitors learning at CAMIT. Different from some of the scholars suggested that exhibition labels prevent visitors from constructing their learning experiences. At the CAMIT, visitors, both parents and children, integrated the exhibition content information conveyed with their own knowledge effectively to interact with each other, within the gallery and even to their everyday experience.

At the Gettys Family Room, the information provided related to each featured object is very limited. As stated earlier, only the name of the artist, title of the artwork, year it was made, and the materials used, and an image of the original artwork were provided in each cove. No other related information regarding the object is provided at the interactive gallery. The Gettys Family Room did not include much information at the labels purposely to provide visitors the opportunities to construct their own learning based the knowledge and experience that they brought with them. Considering Deweys explanation on Progressive education, textbook should not be abandoned and educators should not be excluded in a progressive education environment in which children are encouraged to actively explore and construct knowledge. However, consideration should also be given for the rationale of the FR in the context of Getty as a whole.

Applying Deweys explanation on formal school learning to interactive art exhibition which was not prevalent during Deweys time, it would be useful for the Getty design team to reconsider the educational role that exhibition labels may play in a learning environment designed based on constructivist exhibition theory.  The very limited information provided at the Family Room was similar to Deweys assertion about formal school that when textbook were abandoned, it showed that educators had misinterpreted the progressive education theory. Constructivist museum advocated by Hein was built upon Deweys theory of progressive education. When museum educators constrained information to be conveyed to visitors and argued that it was for the purpose of facilitating visitors personal response and constructing knowledge socially, it indicated that this was likely a mis-interpretation of constructivist museum design theory.  

The interactives that engage children to learn
According to observation and interview, the Worms Eye, Birds Eye gallery is one of the most engaging activities at the CAMITs A Vastly Different Perspective. The sculpture cove based on Puryears That Profile is the most engaging at the Getty. At A Vastly Different Perspective, children and parents observed came up with different srategies with constructing a city. The strategies used included building blocks from lowest to highest, placing blocks only horizontally, the blocks were built against the triangular walls, the blocks were positioned at the center of the gallery, blocks divided to form small groups of city buildings. Children and parents used the city scenes created to play together. One family crawled on the city blocks to imagine as if they were worms observing the city scene. One child created a scene in which that she was a baby growing into Kingkang taller than the buildings and her mother was a resident in the city. A father laid down on the scene with his child imagining with her what kinds of things that they might see in the citys night sky.

Studies of these interactions in the CAMIT show a high degree of collective participation though the main purpose of viewing the exhibits is for educational purposes, family interaction is encouraged and reinforced. In this sense, Wineman and Peponis (2010) point out that though museums prescribe the meaning of the space, the interaction process is what actual realizes the value and social relevance of the museum space. In a similar manner, because the CAMIT exhibit, through the parents own interaction, is able to support its educational function, parents are likely to bring their children back to the view the exhibits. The implication is that the interatives capacity to engage its primary and secondary target viewers can be directly related to functional success (Kanevsky et al, 2008)

At the Getty Family Room, children and parents also came up with different ways to work with tubes. The strategies came up included build tubes that goes only horizontally, only vertically, tubes that reach as far as it can, tubes that intertwined with each other, tubes only at the corner among others. Children and parents used the structures built to come up with different dramatic play scenes they were tree houses, obstacle courses, tubes that burns, spider webs. In this manner, though the FR exhibits labels were did not have the same level of interaction that the CAMIT labels had relatively, it can be argued that the physical interactive opportunities it provides for families collectively. Both Delicado and associates (2009) as well as Moreno Gil (2009) consider these adaptations as an indication of socio-cultural variances in the conceptualization interactive and what constitutes positive engagement of visitors. Moreover, this points out that there strategies for engagement can differ and reflect the diversity prevalent in society.

Identifying the similar characteristics within these two interactives can provide museum education field indications of effective design in the future. It is clear that the perspectives and strategies that were employed by each museum is specific t their needs and rationale for their exhibits. This highlights the need for designers and administrators to develop socially relevant exhibits that can respond to both its own objectives as well as the public. In the process of examining the effectiveness of both exhibits, there is recognition that they share characteristics that can be strongly associated to their respective success.

CAMIT provides extensive information support through exhibit labels and making available regular guided tours these serve as the primary foundation of the achievement of learning objectives and subsequent reinforcements. The Getty FR highly encourages physical immersion in the exhibits and allows visitors to build on basic information independently to allow for individual or independent learning. Also, both CAMIT and FR encourage the support of parents to childrens exploration of exhibits the exhibit experience serves to create an opportunity for interaction or collaborations. In addition, both exhibits encourage and provide opportunities for extending the museum exhibit to other activities within and outside the exhibit and museums.

Both of these interactives
Facilitates open-ended learning that relates to art
Engage family visitors, specially physically and cognitively
Fosters social interactions among family members
4) Supports opportunities for play
5) Encourages personal connections