Investigating parent attitudes from the perspective of learning experiences in a museum

ABSTRACT Museums are important locations providing cognitive resources to children in various subjects. Literature suggests that parent–child interaction in the museum differs across cultures. Two of the main reasons for this are the overall attitude towards the child and the autonomy provided. The data reveals that the most decisive factor was parents’ attitudes towards the autonomy of the child. Research primarily focuses on the structure of parent–child interaction in Turkey in the context of museums, and how often scaffolding strategies are used by parents. It also examines how using these strategies differ in terms of parental attitudes toward children and their caretakers as well as their own individual children. The person selecting the object to talk about (mother-father–child) during the interaction process was accepted as an indicator of autonomy support, and how the scaffolding strategies differed correspondingly was investigated. Parents mostly used strategies of mobilization/maintenance and detailed explanation.