Nowadays, museums are designed for learning. They contain a wide range of information from traditional factual knowledge to commentary on the value systems that shape societies across the world. Artifacts and digital resources from such institutions can be of immense value to both teachers and students, as they can enrich school curricula, classroom activities, and indeed external trips. How can content from museums and cultural heritage sites be used in an effective, meaningful, and collaborative way? Through Project-Based Learning (PBL), of course! This course will demonstrate how the activities conducted in museums and at cultural heritage sites can add an extra layer of challenge and intrigue to traditional PBL courses, as the inclusion of real-life materials and excursions enco
urages students to interact with information in an engaged and emotive manner, whilst the shared lived experiences from external trips stimulate teamwork. If you are unfamiliar with PBL, it is a student-centered methodology that allows learners to gain and develop knowledge through the creation of a project. Each program begins with a driving question provided by the teacher (e.g., How would you design an open-air museum whilst aiming for inclusivity?). The teacher then guides their students throughout the process of solving the problem, which ultimately leads to the creation of a final piece of work. This course’s active approach to learning seeks to enhance the external cultural visit by including it as a crucial step in the PBL process. Furthermore, the convergence of tasks conducted in the classroom and during the visit encourages the use of visual-thinking skills, team cohesion, and peer-to-peer interaction. The course will provide teachers with practical tools for extrapolating data and information from museums and cultural heritage sites, as well as their corresponding online platforms, to integrate practical and tangible examples and add more value to their final project presentation. In summary, by the end of this course, participants are able to develop creative and highly collaborative learning programs by incorporating museum and city excursions with PBL activities in the classroom. Teachers will feel ready to create courses for their students based on this teaching model that generates long-term knowledge retention with the added benefit of the emotional impact that a cultural visit contributes to the PBL strategy.
The course will help participants to:
- Build and implement PBL strategies in the classroom;
- Understand PBL’s wide variety of uses for projects regarding museums and cultural heritage sites (including their digital archives);
- Motivate students through teamwork, creative learning, and inquiry-based-learning;
- Guide students in the interpretation of cultural heritage sites in order to strengthen their visual and critical thinking skills;
- Organize engaging and immersive cultural visits through PBL.
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