DEVELOPMENT OF TOOLS FOR LEARNING IN A SCIENCE MUSEUM      1700w

Science museums and science centres are informal science institutions which are the effective channels that have been used as the tools to communicate science and technology to the public. These informal educational institutes provide various positive impact such as the memorable learning experiences influence to attitude and behaviour, the increasing of visitor’s knowledge and understanding of science, the personal and social inspirations which can enhance inter-generation learning, and the impact on encourage trust and understanding between the public and the scientific community (ECSITE 2009). Museums became the places for everyone including families, the American Association of Museum reported that in the US the majority group visited the museum in 2006 was the family group (Borun 2008). Parents usually bring their children to museums for many reasons, learning something new, relaxation, and entertainment (Laetsch et al. 1980; Wolins 1989; Falk & Dierking 1992b; Falk & Dierking 2000)

 There are long literatures of researches which study about family visitor learning in Museum and informal setting institutes in the Western culture. Many research attempt to understand the social behaviour and improve the learning experiences for the family visitors by investigated visitors’ attention and participation (KORAN et al. 1988; Judy Diamond 1986; McManus 1987; Falk 1991). For example, the research on the influence of children on the viewing behaviour of family groups by Judy Diamond in 1979 in Falk and Dierking, 1992 indicated that families tend to understand exhibition by trial and error and discussing among the group without reading instructions. Children likely to interact with exhibition more than their parents who tend to learn by looking for the information (Sherman Rosenfeld 1982).

There are also broad perspectives of