Hello IIana,
Hopefully I have some useful suggestions for you. One of my first question is audience-specific - when you say
students, what age are you talking about? Any self-report instrument will need to take age (congnitive and emotional development) into account. Most of the self-report suggestions I provide below are for adult audiences; the observational ones can be used for all ages.
As was already mentioned by Barbara Becker, observing actual behavior will give you the most reliable data, so definately look into Beverly Serrell's book. She even shares some self-report survey item questions you might find useful to measure knowledge acquisition, such as, "What would you say is the main purpose of (this exhibit/the displays/the gallery)?", then follow it up with, "To show..." and "To make people...". Another question she offers, and we've used, is, "What is one new idea you are taking away with you?", followed up by, " I didn't know, or I never realized that...".
There is an article on tracking and timing also published that is useful: Yalowitz & Bronnenkant (2009). Timing and Tracking: Unlocking Visitor Behavior,
Visitor Studies, 12:1, 47-64.
Another great tool is the
Visitor-Based Learning Framework by Chantal Barriault. We've used and adapted this instrument for many of our exhibits. Again, it is observational, which is more reliable than self report in terms of
what guests do in terms of engagement in your museum. It's a great tool because you look at behaviors in three categories - Initiation behaviors (e.g., searches for animal, takes photo), Transitional behaviors (e.g., reads graphics, asks 1-2 questions about content), and Breakthrough behaviors (e.g., engages in deep exploration/inquisition, references past experiences).
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/1-The-Visitor-Based-Learning-Framework-from-Barriault-and-Pearson-2010_tbl1_298792014Judy Diamond 's
Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and Other Informal Education Settings may be useful book for your colleague.
Jan Packer's
Dimension of the Visitor Experience (DoVE) instrument is usesful in understanding how people respond to experiences in your museum or in an exhibit, based on a an easy to adminster self- report survey that includes 75 words/phrases that subscribe to one of 15 dimensions of the visitor experience.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10645578.2018.1553925In terms of attitudes, interests, personal connections - there are a multitude of measurements and scales out there for all of these constructs. My advice for your colleague would be to look into what it is they ideally would like to measure, and find measures and scales that have already been tested (doesn't even have to be the museum field). Again, what and how you measure the what will greatly depend on your audience. For example, when we measure attitude change in an early elementary summer camp program, we use photos with emoticon faces to ensure reading literacy is not a factor in their ability to complete the survey.
One thing to mention about students, is that if they are under 18 and in school, you will want to work with the schools (and possibly districts) to ensure you are following all ethics, regulations and policies regarding collecting data from minors. Your best bet is to make sure zero identifiable data is recorded about your respondents.
I've also attached CARE's resource page (a little outdated, but nonetheless, it might be helpful!).
Good luck!
------------------------------
Marley Steele-Inama
Director of Audience Research and Evaluation
Denver Zoo
Denver CO
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 06-27-2019 11:02 AM
From: Ilana Benson
Subject: measuring engagement in museum exhibitions
A colleague of mine is seeking a self-reporting measure that students can use to evaluate/reflect on their engagement in museum exhibitions. Ideally, it will look at stopping and viewing time, knowledge acquisition, attitude, interest level, personal connections etc. I was wondering if any museums currently use such measures, and if they could share them?
Ilana Benson
Director of Museum Education
Yeshiva University Museum
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-294-8330 x8823
ibenson@yum.cjh.org