A Study on the Significance and Application of Museum Exhibition in History Education

Abstract

The museum is not only a collection of numerous historical artifacts; it is also a place that produces historical knowledge through those artifacts. Upon this perception, history education in museums must be discussed not just in a way to improve the utility of museum’s artifacts, but from the acknowledgment of museum’s specific nature as a place of historical representation. Since ‘exhibition’ is the main feature that distinguishes museums from other institutions, it can be seen as a factor forming the context and structure of historical knowledge. This study is an analysis of previous studies which had advanced in using museums as a medium of learning. Under the perception that the museum form historical knowledge by its visual rhetorical ‘exhibition’, I explored its characteristics and meanings and also illustrated the direction and stages of procedure and principles in which history classes should be organized. One reason for learning history is to estimate the direction of one’s life by understanding the nature of history. This can be achieved by involving students in the process of history formation as well as conveying history as knowledge of results. In this respect, history education in museums suggested in this study is significant because the object is to understand museum as a dynamic space of perpetual knowledge reproduction and probes for some way to reach this sort of historical understanding.