Most years, Taylor Studios, Inc. presents a session at the NAI National Workshop. We develop sessions with concentrated focus on the target audience. We ask the following question of each of our sessions, “What useful, insightful, and provocative information can we offer to attendees?”

Despite the fact that our sessions must all rise to the order of useful, insightful, and provocative, we are continually surprised at the seemingly arbitrary popularity across individual sessions. Some sessions seem to provide perfect content at the perfect time, and others not so much.

This year, we were overwhelmed by the response we received from our session Kids Have the Darnedest Observations. In short, the session focused on the fact that there is a general absence in the literature about the direct opinions of young kids about their experiences in museums, nature centers, zoos, aquaria, and planetariums. Therefore, we decided to listen to the voices of children in expressing and articulating their personal experiences in informal education settings.

No fewer than four attendees asked after the session if they could become involved in this study. It seemed that the lack of studies on this subject were perceived by others beyond us.  Going forward, we are enthusiastic about developing relationships with those who see the worth in continuing to look into this topic.

Have any of you uncovered any studies about young children’s perceptions of informal learning environments? Do any of the studies present the actual words of students relating their opinions? If so, we would be elated to hear from you.