Marandino, Oliveira, Pugliese, Bueno, Maia, & AchiamIntended praxeology of dioramaThe intended praxeology of dioramas in science museums Martha Marandino, Adriano D. Oliveira, Adriana Pugliese, Juliana P. Bueno, and Roberta MaiaFaculty of Education, University of So Paulo, BrazilMarianne AchiamDepartment of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Resumen.El objetivo de este trabajo es caracterizar la praxeologa intencionada de dioramas de museos de ciencia con el fin de contribuir a la comprensin de la produccin de la exposicin del museos, as como su papel educativo. Dos dioramas fueron estudiados: el Selva de Haya de Zoologisk Museum / Universidad de Copenhague / Dinamarca y la Selva Amaznica del Museo de Zoologa / Universidad de So Paulo / Brasil. La praxeologa de los dos dioramas se describen y se discuten los desafos y posibilidades de la metodologa de abordaje en diferentes gneros de la exposicin, comparando sus praxeologas.

Rsum.L`objectif cet article est la caractrisation de la praxologie de recherche de dioramas de muses des sciences, pour l`apporter comprhension des processus de production des expositions, comme sour le rle pdagogique ces objets dans les muses. Deux dioramas ont t tudies: la Fort de Htres du Muse/Universit Zoologisk de Copenhague/Danemark et de la Fort Tropicale Humide d'Amazone du Muse de Zoologie/Universit de So Paulo/Brazil. Le praxologie des deux dioramas a t dcrit et nous avons discut les dfis et les possibilits de l`approche de mthodologie de diffrents genres d`exposition, et comparer leur praxologies.

Abstract.The objective of this paper is to characterize the intended praxeology of science museums dioramas in order to contribute to the comprehension of the production of museum exhibition, as well as their educational role. Two dioramas were studied: The Beech Forest from Zoologisk Museum/University of Copenhagen/Denmark and the Amazon Rainforest from Museum of Zoology/University of So Paulo/Brazil. The praxeology of both dioramas was described and we discuss the challenges and possibilities of the methodology approach in different genres of exhibition, comparing their praxeologies.

IntroductionMuseums and science centres are currently recognized as important teaching and learning arenas (Hooper-Greenhill, 1994) and the exhibitions are educational units that should be studied with regards to their production as well as the way the public interprets the ideas, concepts and objects that exist there. Various museographic media are used in the preparation of science museum exhibitions, and among these we emphasise the dioramas, which emerged in the nineteenth century and which are widely used today as didactic objects intended to present issues related to ecology and biodiversity (Van Prat, 1989; Oliveira & Marandino, 2010).The understanding of dioramas as didactic objects, produced with the purpose of teaching and learning, implies the importance of studying them with the praxeological perspective (Chevallard, 2007). This perspective has been used in the analysis of disciplinary-didactic praxeologies in teaching and learning situations at schools, with emphasis on characterizingthe teachers didactic praxisandlogos. The main point of this approach has been to construct new teacher training processes (Higueras & Garcia, 2010). However the study of praxeology in museums has been recently developed in order to analyze the teaching environment in museum exhibitions and yield theoretically grounded and practically applicable principles to improve the alignment of the exhibition conjecture, design and educational outcomes (Mortensen, 2010). The work presented here aims to characterize the intended praxeology of dioramas in two museum exhibitions in order to contribute to their production process as well as understanding their educational potential. Such information can be used for the development of learning devices that are encountered during a museum visit, for the educational training of museum educators, and for the teachers who visit these places with their students.To this end, the intended praxeology of two existing dioramas in the exhibitions of two science museums is proposed, based on the work of Mortensen (2011). The first objective of the construction of the praxeologies for dioramas is verifying the possibility of the application of this perspective in order to study dioramas as educational tools. Dioramas are a type of static object presented in museum exhibitions especially in the 19th century, stimulating a mainly contemplative audience behaviour. While Mortensen (2011) studied the intended praxeology embodied in an interactive and immersive exhibit, here, we are interested in examining the methodological possibilities and challenges of constructing the intended praxeology of a more fixed and inactive exhibit genre such as the diorama. In addition, we discuss the similarities and differences between those kinds of exhibits in museums contemplative and interactive by analysing how the categories of the praxeology work in each case. The second objective of elaborating the intended praxeologies of the dioramas is to confront it later with the observed praxeologies of the visitors. This stage of the research will not be presented here.MethodologyThe methodology developed was based on research in the field (Higueras & Garcia, 2010; Mortensen, 2011) and included elaborating a praxeological framework from the data obtained by three collection instruments: documents about the exhibitions and about the dioramas; interviews with the designers and/or those responsible for the exhibition; and by means of observation, description and film and photography of the dioramas. The qualitative data analysis first enabled identifying thetheoryandtechnologyof the dioramas, one from each museum, in the context of their expositions. Next, thetasksandtechniques of eachone were proposed, thus constituting the praxeological framework of the objects under analysis. The first diorama analysed was The Beech Forest and it is on display at The Danish Fauna Throughout 20,000 Years: from Mammoth Steppe to Cultural Steppe exhibition, from the Zoologisk Museum/University of Copenhagen/Denmark. The second diorama was Amazon Rainforest, displayed at the exhibition Research on Zoology: Biodiversity under the View of Zoology of the Museum of Zoology of the University of So Paulo/Brazil.Both dioramas present the forest biomes of the two localities and as they are located within museums of zoology, the scenarios are composed by taxidermied animals, models of plants and animals and other elements such as light and sound, in an attempt to reproduce those ecosystems and the relationships between their constituent elements. To analyse the dioramas we used data from documents of the museums, especially from the development of the exhibitions as well as their catalogues; interviews with members of the staff who participated in the creation of the exhibits or are responsible for the exhibition, such as curators from the scientific and museological areas and directors of the museums; and observation and description of the dioramas, combining data from field notes, photos and video recordings and doing a thorough description of each diorama, using the method proposed by Oliveira (2010).Combining data from documents, interviews and observation, we identified first the theory and the technology of the dioramas, taking into account the role of the object in the exhibition as a totality. We then proposed the tasks, the element of the exhibition where the tasks could be identified and the technique for each task, considering the elements in the scenario composed of real objects, models and texts. Two tables were generated by describing the intended praxeology of each diorama.The analysis in this paper, as mentioned above, considers the methodological possibilities and challenges of the production of the intended praxeology of contemplative exhibits such as dioramas, as well as a comparison with the intended praxeology of an interactive and immersive exhibit (Mortensen, 2011). The diorama as an educational toolDioramas were originally conceived of as a means for visitors to explore and discover authentic environments much in the same way as a naturalist explores and discovers unknown natural areas. They are based on educational intentions when presented in exhibitions, and attempt to illustrate aspects of ecology in ways that non-specialist visitors can interact with.Since their conception, dioramas have been widely used in museums and as a result have been attributed different definitions. The literature that seeks to define dioramas generally emphasizes the idea of representation (Lurie, 1983; Asensio & Pol, 1996; Ash, 2004; Breslof, 2005); for some authors this representation includes the real object, the proper specimen, whereas for others this aspect is not so evident; however, they all underscore the importance of the scale of the objects that are presented in their real size and in a realistic setting. The diorama is thus based on a principle of analogy where the exhibited objects are arranged to in a visual representation of a real reference world (Mortensen, 2010a).Understanding dioramas as devices imbued with educational intentions allows us to consider them as products of museographic transposition, a transformation process in which content from the domain of scientific research is transformed and adapted to become embodied in the final installation of the physical exhibit in a museum (Mortensen, 2010b). The resulting exhibit with its objects, texts, specimens and other items is thus an expression of the adaptations and selections that scientific knowledge and practices undergo, and comprises the expositive discourse (Marandino, 2001). The expositive discourse of a diorama is the narrative that emerges from the staging of the content: a scenario that uses models of plants, taxidermied animals, and other items to embody aspects of the life and behaviour of the organisms, their relation with other organisms, and their relationship with the environment.In this perspective, and understanding dioramas as didactical objects presented for a long time in museums, this study develops an analysis of the praxeologies of dioramas in two museums in order to understand the teaching environment in museum exhibitions.Praxeology as a tool to study education in museum exhibitionsExhibitions and their constituent parts, exhibits, are educational resources. However, unlike many educational resources in the formal school system, exhibits must be capable of functioning without the intervention of an explainer or educator they are stand-alone teaching devices (Feher, 1990). In other words, the physical makeup of an exhibit must in and of itself mediate to the visitor not only what the visitor must do, but also how that doing can be interpreted and understood.Praxeology is founded on the premise that all human activity practical as well as mental is precipitated by the perception of problems or tasks to be solved or accomplished in our environment. Praxeology is thus quite appropriate to model the physical makeup of an exhibit in terms of tasks as well as the physical and mental activities promoted by those tasks in terms of visitor techniques and technologies (Mortensen, 2011). In fact, in a praxeological analysis, the careful study of the physical attributes of an exhibit requires the researcher to evaluate every perceivable feature of the exhibit in terms of what was the intentions of the curators when choosing each element presented on it and what kinds of visitor actions it affords and how those actions contribute to the educational objective of the exhibit. Presenting the Diorama PraxeologiesAs mentioned before, data from dioramas from two different museums are presented. Both the Zoologisk Museum from Copenhagen University and Museum of Zoology from So Paulo University have the same central theme of collection and research related to zoology. They both organize their exhibitions in order to show concepts and ideas related to zoology, ecology, biodiversity, and evolution among other notions, using taxidermied organisms, models, panels, and texts.Dioramas in both museums are a means to represent the central objectives of research and education, but each museum has a particular way to elaborate and present the dioramas. The represented environment a forest in both cases and the objects in the scenario, as well as the narrative proposed in each diorama is related to the conceptual proposal (scientific, educational and museographic) of the exhibition. So, as each museum has particular conceptual intention and collection and as each diorama presents a different ecosystem Beech Forest and Amazon Forest - the objectives and the elements inside the dioramas contributes to create a particular and different narrative about zoology, biodiversity and ecosystem. The praxeology of The Beech Forest diorama:The Zoological Museum in Copenhagen ranks as one of the ten most important in the world (Wolf, 2012). Its principal research fields are systematics, zoogeography and phylogeny and it is part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. As underlined in the website of the museum, their exhibitions are designed to let the visitor experience how the fauna changes as you travel from the North Pole to the South Pole, the Danish fauna from the last Ice Age until today, and the animals of the great oceans. The analysed diorama belongs to an exhibition called The Danish Fauna Throughout 20.000 Years: From Mammoth Steppe to Cultural Steppe. This exhibition intends to represent the fauna of Denmark over the past 20,000 years and the changes that took place in the environment over this long period. The Beech Forest is the last diorama in a series of objects that are presented in this exhibition and it has the intention to show the present Beech Forest in Denmark.Considering the data obtained by interviews, documents and observation of the diorama and using praxeology as an analytic tool, it is possible to say that The Beech Forest diorama intends, by its scenario, shows to the audience a typical ecosystem during a summer day in Denmark. Thus, thetheory of The Beech Forest dioramacan beexpressed as the environmental and geological changes that have occurred in Denmark since the last glacial period up to the present day, particularly those related to animal and plantlife. This theory is related to the whole exhibition and is the overarching theory of all the dioramas of the exhibition, as they together represent this general idea, at the same time each expressing a separate aspect of this central notion.With regards to the technology, The Beech Forest represents a typical contemporary forest ecosystem of Denmark with some diversity of plants, animals, and ecological relationships as predation and herbivorism. Also, abiotic elements such as rocks and light compose the scenario.The tasks and techniques were elaborated by studying each element in the diorama, identifying the expressed concepts considering not only the presence of an individual, group of specimens or systematic group, but also looking for the behaviour represented in the relation between then and with the environment. Some of the tasks and techniques of this diorama are shown in table 1.

TasksSupportTechniqueTechnologyTheory

1. Perceive the distribution and the reforested and deciduous nature of beech forestPanel textRead the text about the distribution and nature of the forestUnderstand that the beechwood forest is a typical, contemporary Danish ecosystem with some diversity of plants, animals, and ecological relationshipsWhat are the environmental and geological changes that have occurred in Denmark since the last glacial period up to the present day, particularly those related to animal and plantlife?

2. Perceive the diversity of animal and plant species of the beech forest Panel text, diorama, and sound trackRead the text, observe the taxidermied animals and plants, listen to sound track

3. Perceive the diversity of ecological relations between animals, plants, and animals-plants in the beech forestDioramaObserve female roe deer suckling young; observe tree leaves competing for light

Table1. Intended praxeology of the Beech Forest diorama.The praxeology of the Amazon Forest dioramaThe website of the Museum of Zoology of USP reveals that this institution develop studies about Neotropical fauna of South America and Central America. They develop research in some principal areas as taxonomy, evolution and biogeography based on their collection, composed by eight millions of specimens.The exhibition of Museum of Zoology called Research in Zoology: biodiversity beneath the look of the zoologists presents animals and their environment, the history of the animals on Earth, with biogeography and evolution concepts and the work of the zoologist in research activities. It aims to present the organisms and environments used in the research of this institution. There is a part of the exhibition dedicate to Tropical Fauna and Marine Environment, composed by dioramas representing some tropical biomass and the Amazon Rainforest is the first of the group.

TasksSupportTechniqueTechnologyTheory

1. Perceive the geographical distribution of amazon forest at the neotropical region Panel; mapObserve the map with the geographical distribution and read the text Understand that the Amazon Forest is an ecosystem composed of different environments, with a large diversity of plants, animals and ecological relations, as well as its geographical distribution and main threatsPresent the species and ecosystem diversity of the neotropical region

2. Perceive the different types of environment and their main characteristics Panel (text and photo)Read the text and observe illustration about types of environment

3. Perceive the principal threat to Amazon Forest PanelRead text

4. Perceive the diversity of ecological relations between animals, between animals and plants, and between plantsLegend; dioramaIdentify different ecological relations

5. Perceive that Amazon Forest has a large diversity of mammals Legend; dioramaIdentify different mammals of the Amazon Forest ecosystem

Table2. Intended praxeology of the Amazon Rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest diorama was analysed using documents, interviews and observation. The theorycan be expressed in the following way: Biodiversity based on research in zoology with emphasis on neotropical fauna. As for the diorama Amazon Rainforest of MZUSP, the technologyproposed is to representthe Amazonian biodiversity in the taxonomic, ecosystem andconservation dimensions (Table 2).DiscussionPraxeology and dioramas: methodological challenges and possibilitiesThe development and use of the notions of ATD in museums takes a point of departure in museographic transposition as a means to study the transformation of knowledge in the production of exhibition milieux (Mortensen, 2010; Oliveira, 2010). Mortensen (2011) further used the concept of praxeology to understand museum exhibitions as educational devices. In her work, the author developed the method of analysing the praxeology of an immersion exhibit, emphasising the immersive and interactive qualities of the exhibit as being specific to its way of mediating its message. Generalising this line of reasoning, we find that in the construction of praxeologies about museum exhibits, it is always necessary to account for the genre of exhibit e.g. contemplative, immersive, multisensory, or interactive. In other words, the type-specific ways of mediation of different exhibit genres should be accounted for in the construction of the intended praxeology. Here, we considered the praxeology of the diorama: a more static and contemplative exhibit genre. These characteristics are reflected in the definitions of the dioramas tasks and especially the techniques, which are mostly related to observing and reading text. On the other hand, an observant visitor who spends time looking and exploring the scene, can identify many aspects, concepts, relationships and so on. In the dioramas scenario it is possible to identify biological concepts related to the characteristics of each specimen or individual or even the relation between then and with the environment. Furthermore, it was sometimes difficult to select what to describe as a task looking to the data obtained by interviews, documents and observation. There are cases that it is not clear what the real intention is of some of the objects presented. For example, the jaguar at the diorama of Amazon Rainforest which from its size and position causes a very strong impact among the visitors - is represented in a stand up position, looking forward and showing his teeth. This representation promotes questions as what kind of behaviour is being displayed?; Is the jaguar hunting? Is it protecting its territory?. In interviews with specialists from the Museum of Zoology we obtained the information that this jaguar was taxidermied a long time ago in a way that does not correspond to what scientists know now about this species. Those situations let us make decisions about what to select in the scene as a task and techniques. Taking the work of Mortensen (2011) as a reference, we decide to group as much as possible the tasks in order represent in a generically way the didactic intentions embodied in the dioramas.Comparing the praxeologies of different exhibit genresAs mentioned in the preceding, the characteristic types of tasks and corresponding techniques of the diorama exhibit genre are related to its static nature. How do these types of tasks and techniques relate to those of other exhibit genres?Immersion exhibits mediate their content by creating a three-dimensional representation of the world, by integrating the visitor in that role, and by creating a dramatization of science content in time and space (Belan, 2003). The intended praxeology of such an exhibit is (perhaps not surprisingly) characterised by techniques such as recognising an intended role, using multiple sensory modalities, and navigating a certain space (Mortensen, 2011). Another example is that of hands-on exhibits, which usually mediate their content through a simple action-reaction sequence between visitor and exhibit (Feher, 1990). Indeed, the intended praxeology of such a hands-on exhibit can be characterised by techniques such as pressing a button and observing the outcome (Achiam, 2012).In sum, we find that in the cases referenced here (the diorama, the immersion exhibit, and the hands-on exhibit), the types of tasks and techniques are a precise way to describe the ways of mediation of different exhibit genres. In fact, if we consider the abstract notion of an exhibit genre as something which can be decribed using content-non-specific types of tasks and techniques, we might think of it as constituting its own didactic praxeology (cf. Artigue & Winslw, 2010; Barb, Bosch, Espinoza, & Gascn, 2005) a notion that deserves further consideration!ReferencesAchiam, M. F. (2012). A content-oriented model for science exhibit engineering. International Journal of Science Education, Part B. iFirst article, p. 1-19.Artigue, M, & Winslw, C. (2010). 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