兒童觀眾和參與式展品互動之探討－－家庭觀眾中的兒童成員

How Children Interact with Hands-on Exhibitions -----Children as Part of Family Group

設置參與式展品是科學博物館吸引觀眾的手段，也是提高觀眾學習興致的方法，特別是對於兒童觀眾；由於受到源自皮亞傑發展心理學理論中，動手參與有助於兒童學習的信念所影響， 參與式展品已成為科學博物館在針對兒童觀眾規劃展示峙的主要方式。不過， 如何規劃設計出良好的參與式展品，則考驗著展示設計者的能力。從了解兒童觀眾與展品互動的狀況著手，意即自觀眾研究的成果中尋求具體的依據，是博物館在改進展示與尋求更佳設計的一帖良方，這樣的事例於國外博物館中十分普遍，如：美國費城地區的四所博物館即聯合推動一項針對家庭觀眾的觀眾研究計畫，藉以改進展示提昇學習成效（Borun，1997）；但在國內由於博物館事業興盛未久，觀眾研究正處於起步階段，近年來之相關者如：劉幸真（民77）針對自然科學博物館之南島民族展示區進行觀眾參觀行為研究，吳春秀（民85）以故宮玉器陳列室為研究場域進行總結式評量，胡文齡（民87）則針對觸控式展品之觀眾使用行為進行研究，國立科學工藝博物館（以下簡稱科工館） 委託學者高明瑞針對科工館觀眾進館後的參觀路線與參觀行為進行探討（民88）；雖然各項研究皆有所穫，但因數量不多，所以對國內觀眾的了解仍然有限，特別是針對兒童觀眾的研究幾可說是付之闕如。

Science museums always strive to anticipate the actions of visitors in designing hands-on exhibitions for the museum. This helps to improve the learning process for these visitors, especially for the children among them. Hands-on exhibitions are particular effective for teaching children because they involve principles derived directly from Piaget's developmental psychology. Thus they have become an important part of exhibition planning for children m sc1ence museums. This article deals mostly with how children interact with hands-on exhibitions. The target visitors for the area studied--- the Children's World of Science section of the NSTM --- includes pre-schoolers and lower primary school students, i.e., children from about four to eight years old. Three aspects are examined: the liveliness of interaction, what physical skills are involved, and what intellectual stimulation is provided. Involvement of other family members is also examined.