The Museum Experience Revisited

John H. Falk is a leading figure in free-choice learning, museum research, and science education in the United States. Currently, he holds the position Sea Grant Professor of Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University. He is founder and Director Emeritus of the well-known museum research firm, Institute for Learning Innovation, in Annapolis, Maryland and has worked at a variety of other key positions in the museum world, including 14 years at the Smithsonian Institution. Falk earned a joint doctorate in Biology and Education from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over one hundred scholarly articles and chapters in the areas of biology, psychology and education, co-author with Lynn Dierking of The Museum Experience, Learning from Museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning, and Lessons without Limit: How free-choice learning is transforming education, with Beverly Sheppard of Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New business models for museums and other cultural institutions and editor of numerous books including Free-Choice Science Education: How we learn science outside of school. Lynn Dierking is Sea Grant Professor in Free-Choice Learning at Oregon State University, co-directing a comprehensive learning research program integrating K-12, Collegiate Teaching and Free-Choice Learning concentrations. Over a 30+ year professional career, Lynn has worked in a variety of educational settings: Middle and high school science classrooms, the Smithsonian Office of Educational Research, University of Maryland’s College of Education and as director of a middle school curriculum project, Science in American Life, at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Her work centers on the long-term learning of children, youth and families, the development and evaluation of community-based efforts and efforts to involve historically under-represented communities in free-choice learning.