博物馆覆盖了许多的机构，侧重在传统教室以外的场所的学习。博物馆包括文化中心、科学中心、历史场所、公园、天文台、艺术博物馆和艺术画廊。现代博物馆教育将博物馆建设成为创新的学习场所，而不是文物库。因为博物馆和其他非正式学习场所在社会中扮演了新的角色，博物馆专业人员，尤其是博物馆教育者有责任思考博物馆和其他非正式学习场所的教育作用和潜能，博物馆机构内的教学，并探索博物馆和其他更大范围的团体的关系。
The term museum encompasses a broad range of organisations with a focus on learning in settings outside the traditional classroom. Museums include cultural centres, science centres, historic sites, parks, planetaria, art museums and art galleries. Contemporary museum education establishes museums as innovative learning environments rather than repositories of artefacts. As museums and other informal learning sites contemplate new roles within society it will be incumbent upon museum professionals, and particularly museum educators, to become catalysts for different ways of thinking about the educational roles and potentials of museums and other informal learning sites, teaching and learning in museum settings as well as exploring new relationships between museums and the broader community.