Learning Theories

Constructivism

Constructivism is one of the learning theories. Its main idea is that learning is from the inside out, in which the learner is actively engaged in the surrounding environment and constructs knowledge during this process (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018).

During our interviews, many college students mentioned that “I want to know more about art” and “I enjoy going to museums to appreciate these artworks”, which reminds us of Constructivism. They are interested in visiting exhibitions and seeing artworks although they are not studying in an art-related field, which shows their intrinsic motivation for art. This links to the Constructivism theory, which addresses the importance of learners actively constructing their knowledge rather than passively taking in information (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018).

Constructivism in Design

We want to create some features that can better elevate their intrinsic motivation and let them be more engaged in museums. However, one problem raised in interviews is that most college students find it hard to link concepts of artwork, artists, and art styles with one another. This shows their difficulty to incorporate new information into pre-existing knowledge. We want to stress this issue by using some learning strategies to help the learners conceptualize, organize and retain information. For example, there is a mindmap function in the app. Users can sort various types of information into different categories. In this way, college students can construct their knowledge step by step and connect them together to form a big systematic picture in their minds. In the future, even without our guidance, we hope our users can continuously put new information into their existing schemas, to strengthen their relationships.

To sum up, we think Constructivism theory is appropriate to use here because what college students want to learn is beyond what and how, but about explanations and linkages. And we hope to provide them more opportunities to learn through tasks and by going to museums, to let them construct their knowledge more actively.

Situated Learning

Most people mentioned that going to art museums helps them understand and appreciate artworks better, which reminds us of the concept of situated learning.

Situated learning occurs when a learner is participating in the practices of a community and integrate their knowledge with doing (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). When they go to museums, they are entering into the social context where their sense of art is likely to be triggered.

Situated Learning in Design

When users finish their learning on the app, we want to incorporate a feature to encourage them to go to museums to look at these artworks in person, which is different from looking through mobile phone screens. Therefore, we are thinking of having a recommendation system to recommend museums nearby that have these artworks. And we want to include a punch-card function in our app as well to encourage users actively go to museums.

Reiser, R. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (2018). Trends and issues in Instructional Design and Technology. Pearson.