Welche Konsequenzen hat der Lerntheoriewechsel vom Behaviourismus zum Konstruktivismus auf Museumsdidaktikforschung? Die Autoren nennen fünf wesentliche zu beachtende Punkte:

1. Allow for the individual’s own unique learning agenda to emerge.
2. Address the effect of time on learning.
3. Respect that learning is always situated and contextualized.
4. Be open to a broad range of learning outcomes.
5. (in research-speak) Emphasize validity over reliability.

Whereas as recently as a generation ago, learning was perceived as a necessary but painful process that one “graduated” from sometime in adolescence, by the end of the next generation, learning will be accepted as something that everyone needs to do all the time (cf. Falk and Dierking 2002). But not only will learning be something that everyone needs to do all the time, it will be transformed into something that everyone will consciously want to do all the time. And given that citizens will spend the vast majority of their lives (97 percent) outside the formal education system, free-choice learning will continue to assume ever-greater value and importance. Museums have an important role to play in this arena. However, to do so successfully requires some rethinking – rethinking about what learning is and how museums can best facilitate and document such learning.