Educationists will agree that learning does not only occur in class, but in all other places where we encounter novel situations that generate interest.

Places particularly conducive to learning include parks, science centres, nature reserves, zoos, aquaria and, of course, museums and art galleries.

Constantly being aware of our environment and always measuring the new against the expected is a human evolutionary strategy designed to help us make sense of what is happening in our world.

The need to apply meaning is innate and a dominant motivation for humans. Museums meet this need in many ways: the need for visitors to orient themselves in space, to explore what is novel, to mentally prepare themselves for what is to come and to make overall sense of the museum environment.

The whole world of educational experience and infrastructure contributes to and reinforces learning from museums (Falk and Dierking, 2000). If museums and similar institutions are to have an impact on people’s lives, then they must change people in some way.

Rennie and Johnson (2007) argue that such change or impact involves learning. They propose that learning is a personal process, it is contextualised and it takes time. A visit to a museum is just a tiny part of an individual’s total learning experience.

An old age metaphor says: ‘even the longest museum visit is like a tiny thread woven into the tapestry of the visitor’s life experiences, linked directly or indirectly to the other threads.’

Any learning that occurs during the museum visit becomes part of the visitor’s total lifetime experiences.

Three fourths of Nobel Prize winners in science report that their passion for the subject was first sparked in non-school environments (Falk, 2008). Lifelong science literacy is not sufficiently supported by schooling alone.

It is a critically important to understand the relationship between formal and informal learning and how cultural knowledge, values, and models could impact on such learning (Medin, 2008).

Museums may serve as venues for informal learning for children, adults and senior citizens alike. School visits to museums are opportunities for non-formal learning where the teachers and museum staff exert some control over the pupils in a prearranged and structured setting. Ideally, the pupils should be free to experience museum exhibits as they wish; however, a level of control is required to avoid chaos.

The experiences of museum education staff interacting with school groups daily suggest museums and hands-on centres and galleries may be places where considerable conceptual development occurs.

The ‘change of scene from school’, exhibits which are often purpose-built to communicate scientific concepts, may be strong environmental triggers for the construction of new meanings. Stevenson (1991) found that family visitors to an interactive science gallery could recall the details of scientific ideas addressed by exhibits six months later.

Falk and Dierking’s (2000) contextual model of learning in museums may be helpful in further understanding the effectiveness of museums in facilitating improved learning of school science.

Arguably, the finding also brings with it a responsibility for museums to provide an enjoyable, inspiring experience for school scientists. Braund (2004) states ‘museums are rich and stimulating environments. They can and should be joyful places for learning… they are places where pupils can learn to place scientific phenomena and concepts within everyday contexts… where science is viewed and learned with a sense of awe and wonder.’

As institutions for the general public, museums pre-date schools; yet the popular assumption is that schools are for learning (and for preparation for the future), while museums are for the preservation of the past.

The reality may well be, however, that it is museums that have embraced new technologies and approaches to learning while schools focus on delivering an outdated curriculum.

Museums are a heterogeneous set of institutions whose original twin functions of scholarship and education, once inseparable, but subsequently divorced, are being reunited by digital technologies.

Such technologies also encompass a wide variety, including multimedia, simulations and presentations, as well as the internet. Not only do they facilitate and accelerate long-established learning tasks, but they permit activities that would otherwise be impossible. This includes new approaches to learning by different audiences and for different purposes.

Learning opportunities in museums pose a number of philosophical and practical considerations. Participants engage in learning through constructive dialogue rather than through a passive process of transmission.

Educators are also invited to take on the role of privileged participant rather than that of expert.

Museum learning forces one to carefully evaluate the significance of the formal school curriculum (and its assessment process), and it facilitates lifelong learning by providing a free choice learning environment that permits a plethora of pathways and possibilities.

Museums have an important role to play in facilitating lifelong learning, in terms of creative, cultural and intellectual activity beyond any merely vocational aspects.

The meltdown of the Institute for Conservation and Restoration Studies (ICRS) and the abolition of the degree courses is very sad news indeed for our heritage. It must also be very worrying for present and prospective students. We need to sustain and enhance the activities of institutes like ICRS. Our country requires an adequately trained workforce to nurture our enviable cultural and historical heritage.

The restoration centre in Bighi is not only located in a wonderful site, but is equipped with fine and modern analytical devices such as a scanning electron microscope. Technologically, the centre is able to offer hands-on experience and training in a variety of scientific skills required in restoration work and beyond. The huge investment at the restoration centre should continue to be used to the full advantage of our heritage.

The role of the ICRS should be redefined and upgraded to embrace other aspects of heritage and local culture. A country’s university with so much cultural and historical heritage should have a Museum Studies department, like so many other respectable European universities do.

Such a department could include the programmes previously offered by the ICRS. Cultural heritage study isn’t only about restoration work, but other aspects such as museum studies, museum education, museum management, learning/visitor studies and digital heritage.

Whenever I visit London’s Science Museum, Natural History Museum or British Museum the place is always swarmed with schoolchildren. The modern museum should be an educational venue where visitors go to learn and not simply to look at static, lifeless and dull displays.

A museum today requires trained museum educators who run learning programmes designed to reflect the nature of the museum. There is scope for more and better collaboration between Heritage Malta and educational institutions in general.

Do we have the will to invest in the education and training for the good of our heritage and culture? I sincerely hope that we do.

Mr Mifsud is a lecturer in Biology at the Junior College and is currently concluding his doctoral thesis in science and museum education at the University of London.

Have your say

If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject to be tackled in the Edu-cation section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513 or e-mail dhamilton@timesofmalta.com.

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