Learning in a Museum
A different mode of learning
Learning event 2017: Learning in a Museum #eTwinning
What is a museum?
However, lots of interesting definitions are offered by LE's participants HERE.
Building a museum of museums on the web
Factors that increase opportunities for learning in a museum.
Personally I believe that in order to help learners enhance their cognitive and affective learning some parameters are of paramount importance.In particular, teachers should consider a couple of organisational factors in relation to the trip they organise for their students. They should:
- be familiar with the museum before the trip. Museum staff can be supportive during teacher's pre-visit.
- make visit goals clear to the students.
- design pre-visit activities related to the curriculum goals. It's very important to activate learner's background knowledge and personal experiences. Get students motivated is essential.
- find ways to attract and maintain students' interests. Interactive activities, hands-on tasks, focus on depth not breadth so as to avoid " museum fatigue".
- Students should feel comfortable with the exhibits, have the necessary input neither too much nor too little;as much as they need to retain.
- Teachers should allow students to discover and explore during their visit. "Based on a range of studies, McManus (1985) recommended that worksheets should be designed to encourage observation, allow time for observation, focus on objects not labels, be unambiguous about where to find information and encourage talk."
- Design post-visit activities ,project work preferably, to reinforce learning and students' reflection on the trip. Students should share feelings and emotions as well.
- Be ready to provide feedback .
- Always bear in mind that education and enjoyment should be interwined. Let's not forget that learning in a museum is informal and should not be compared to school learning.
Apart from the aforementioned prerequisites, however, there are a couple more things that are essential. For instance, museum's websites are of great value as they form the initial stage before actually visiting a museum. Having a brief look at some of the exhibits of permanent or temporary collections a museum hosts prepares the visitor giving him a taste of what he is going to learn about.
Furthermore ,guided tours can be very helpful as a museum guide may know more things about the various exhibits than a teacher.
Virtual museums are a great source of learning too that should not be undermined.
Evaluate/exploit a museum as eTwinners
Make a traditional label for an exhibit in a museum more interactive.
10 Deadly sins of label writing
When I take my students to a museum especially an art gallery, I ask them to focus their attention on the exhibit, here a painting, and describe what they see. What? Who? When?Then I urge them to offer a title to the painting. In the end they read the label and see if their guesses were correct or not. After some time of training their titles were very close to the ones of the artist.As my main interest is to foster their creative imagination and observation skill I do not focus on details on the label. For example for this painting students described people, their feelings, face expressions, mood learnt the word 'siesta' and compared it to people's siesta nowadays.
Kids taking charge
Young people's contribution to museums
10 Reasons to take a field trip to a Museum
Why organising a field trip in a museum? For obvious to all of us reasons.
- Affect students’ values – Historical empathy- students learn how people lived in the past
- Effective informal learning more interesting and alluring than formal school learning.
- Students cultivate their critical thinking and observation skills.
- Authentic learning through authentic resources
- Hands on activities for students making learning a fun – multimedia experience
- Students have the chance to socialize
- ‘diversity –curiosity and creativity’ three basic principles that students have the chance to cultivate through learning in a museum.
- Students learn how to learn – lifelong learning is fostered.
- Learning can become exciting – better bond between teachers and students
- Students broaden their horizons, gain knowledge , become motivated.
Daniela's input
Taking a field trip to a museum offers students and teachers an opportunity to interact with real objects. Field trips engage the senses, bring curriculum concepts to life, and inspire new questions.
Feasible Top 10 reasons to take a field trip to a museum:
1. Museums excite and motivate students to learn about our world.
2. Immersion in a museum environment engages all students in a multi-sensory learning experience.
3. Museum exhibitions are interdisciplinary - they can be used to enhance school-based learning across different subject areas.
4. Exposure to collections and exhibitions enables students to build and practise vocabulary.
5. In museums students engage in the process of inquiry: asking questions, collecting evidence, and constructing explanations.
6. Field trip activities foster students' critical thinking skills: analyzing, reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking.
7. Field trip activities support critical pedagogy by engaging students in reflection and evaluation using authentic resources.
8. Field trips deepen students' awareness of the local/regional/national cultural institutions and understanding of museums as places for lifelong learning.
9. Museums offer students a unique experience that cannot be replicated in the classroom.
10. Field trips make learning fun.
How to plan a field trip (by Daniela)
There are 3 main parts to a field trip: pre-field trip activities completed in the classroom, field trip activities at the museum and post-field trip activities conducted back in the classroom.
Field trip checklist:
#At least 2 weeks before the field trip, the teacher(s) should:
- choose 3 potential field trip dates;
- determine the total number of students and chaperones who will be visiting;
- complete necessary school paperwork
- coordinate transportation if needed;
- recruit chaperones;
- visit the museum.
#At least 1 week before the field trip, the teacher(s) should:
- prepare chaperones;
- create chaperones groups - usual rule: 1 adult per 10 students;
- prepare itineraries for chaperones and gather material for students;
- complete pre-field trip activities in the classroom.
#On the day of the field trip, the teacher(s) should:
- provide identification for the group members - chaperones are given nametags, students are given nametags, stickers or matching shirts with the school name and contact information;
- distribute maps and/or itineraries to chaperones, highlighting important meeting times and locations;
- bring supplies for student work, making sure everyone has a pencil, something to write on and the necessary field trip observation sheet(s).
#After the field trip, the teacher(s) should:
- complete post-field trip activities in the classroom, encouraging students to synthesize and reflect on their field trip learning.
FOCUS: STUDENT LEARNING
Students gather evidence, make logical inferences, and support conclusions using multiple sources of information.
Before the field trip:
GOALS for students:
- have realistic expectations about what they will see and do at the museum;
- understand the goals for learning at the museum;
- understand how the field trip fits into classroom learning;
- complete activities that prepare them for learning at the museum.
During the field trip:
GOALS for students:
- thoughtfully engage with museum resources through focused activities;
- meet the field trip's learning objectives;
- build on learning started during pre-field trip activities;
- have fun learning.
After the field trip:
GOALS for students:
- reflect on their field trip experience;
- share what they learnt at the museum;
- discuss and investigate questions that arose during the field trip;
- connect museum experience to learning at school.
Virtual Field Trips
Useful input
Virtual museums can perform as the digital footprint of a physical museum, or can act independently. Examples of such ‘virtual tours’ are:
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (the USA) http://naturalhistory.si.edu/VT3/;
- Berlin Natural History Museum (Germany) https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/project/natural-history;
- London Natural History Museum (Great Britain) https://artsandculture.withgoogle.com/naturalhistorymuseum/;
- Natural History Museum Vienna (Austria) https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/streetview/natural-history-museum-vienna/EAFmV-BTH8NTsA?sv_h=359.0293153724013&sv_p=1.6948532469085222&sv_z=1&sv_lid=3524953352015475462&sv_lng=16.35980182434332&sv_lat=48.20524259581198;
- Europeana 1989 http://www.europeana1989.eu/en/.
Virtual museums only need a series of mouse clicks to propel us – on our own – from exhibit to exhibit, from gallery to gallery, from museum to museum. Virtual museums are not (only) about innovative technologies. Actually the main challenge lies in daring to dream. And the dream is about the fact that museums are more than collections of exhibits, charged with ideological charge (cultural, elitist, intellectual, richness, prestige, etc.) by the willingness of curators, museum directors or politicians promoting culture; virtual museums can, and should be, true cognitive technologies, platforms of situated learning environments, (cyber) social spaces of interaction, where people meet and learn from each other, through the experience of each other and through interaction with each other.
Visiting the British Museum
My virtual gallery
"Legends" virtual art collection
Useful Articles
EUROPE 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, 2010 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52010DC2020&from=IT
Learning in museums and young people - a NEMO - LEM working group study, 2015 http://www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/topics/Audience_Development/Museums_and_Young_People_NEMO_LEMWG_study_2015.pdf
Cabrera, Jorge Simarro et al: Mystery in the Museum: Collaborative Learning Activities using Handheld Devices, 2005 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221270283_Mystery_in_the_museum_Collaborative_learning_activities_using_handheld_devices
D'Acquisto, Linda: An ASCD Study Guide for Learning on Display: Student-Created Museums That Build Understanding, 2006 http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/105018/chapters/An_ASCD_Study_Guide_for_Learning_on_Display@_Student-Created_Museums_That_Build_Understanding.aspx
Da Milano, Cristina: Museums as agents of social inclusion, 2013 http://museummediators.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Museums-as-agents-of-social-inclusion_DaMilano.pdf
Gokcigdem, Elif M.: Five Ways Museums Can Increase Empathy in the World, 2017 http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_museums_can_increase_empathy_in_the_world
Grieve, Arch: Teacher-less field trips: Classroom extension made easy, 2015 https://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacherless-field-trips-classroom-extension-arch-grieve
Hein, George E.: Learning in the Museum, 1998
Hubard, Olga M.: Productive Information: Contextual Knowledge in Art Museum Education, 2007 https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/artinquiry%2FHubard_Productive_Information.pdf
Tuffy, Jennifer: The Learning Trip: Using the Museum Field Trip Experience as a Teaching Resource to Enhance Curriculum and Student Engagement, 2011 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED517713.pdf