The main objective of this research is to examine in depth the conception of school field trips to museums, the collaboration which is established via these visits between schools and museums, and the educational planning of such field trips from the point of view of museum educators and (pre-school, elementary, and secondary education) teachers who visit archaeological museums with their class groups. The results show that 66.1% of the teachers surveyed do not collaborate with the museums. The most prevalent model of collaboration is that of the museum offering educational resource to the school. 68.8% of the educators consider that communication with the school to provide information about the field trip always takes place, whereas only one third (34.5%) of the teachers are of the same opinion. Conclusions demonstrate the need to improve communication and collaboration between museums and schools.
TopDiscussion Of The Study
The discussion of the results is based on the research aims, which establish the roadmap for responding to the main aim of the study: to describe the variables in the conception of school visits to museums, the collaboration established between museums and schools and the educational planning of school visits to museums from the perspective of museum educators and teachers who visit an archaeological museum in Murcia or Alicante with their school group.
The main questions our conclusions seek to answer are:
- •
What conceptions do museum educators and teachers have regarding museums and school visits?
- •
What type of collaboration exists between museums and schools?
- •
How are school visits to archaeological museums planned?
This chapter contains a discussion of the results in accordance with the dimensions of the study. First of all, the main results of the content validity, internal consistency and construct validity analyses of the MUSELA questionnaires are presented. Subsequently, the information relating to the collaboration between museums and schools is highlighted, along with the joint relationship which arises between museums and schools when preparing the visit to the museum, the degree of involvement of the educational agents and students during the field trip to the museum and the predominant models of collaboration. Last of all, the necessary data is presented in order to understand how school visits to the archaeological museums participating in the research are planned: the communication between schools and museums; the development of activities before and after the school visit; the supply and demand of resources and materials; the relationship between the topic of the school visit and the learning carried out at school and the study plan; how the visit fits in with the curriculum; the educational objective of the school field trip to the museum; the type of design and development of activities from the point of view of the teacher and of the museum and the use made by both the school and the museum of resources and materials in order to complement and make the most of school field trips to the archaeological museums.
TopCollaboration Between Museums And Schools
The aim of this section is to describe the collaboration established between the archaeological museums and schools in terms of joint collaboration, degree of intervention and models of collaboration, according to the opinion of the educational agents.