Abstract
Museum visits can offer rich learning environments for preschool children. In potentiating learning environments, power is shared between adults and children as children and teachers co-construct understanding. Such learning environments also maximise opportunities for dialogue between adults, children and their peers. Drawing on the findings from a larger research project that involved preschool-aged children who attended a kindergarten located in a national museum, this paper reports a case study about one child’s learning as well as the activities of the preschool teachers and children before, during and after museum visits to an exhibition that focused on the weaving of Māori ceremonial cloaks. The case study demonstrates how one child’s artistic and imaginative capacities were strengthened through the dialogues and experiences surrounding the visits to the exhibition. Actions of the teachers included the teaching and learning processes of explaining, orchestrating, commentating, modelling, and reifying. Interactions between the child, her peers, the teachers, and the artefacts in the museum enriched this child’s developmental experiences.