Field Trip to a Historic House Museum with Preschoolers: Stories and Crafts as Tools for Cultural Heritage Education

Abstract

ABSTRACTCultural heritage education promotes children's interest in society, especially their immediate surroundings and history. Traditionally in Finland, history is learned through visits to local historic house and city museums, where the learners' role might be quite passive and their only activity a worksheet. However, evidence indicates that visits and educational information are better enjoyed and remembered when they involve activities and children can analyze the experience through interactions and continued learning at school. We examined a preschool field trip to a local historic house museum with arts-based activities continued at school. We evaluated 14 students' follow-up stories and craft products as cultural heritage education and museum pedagogical tools. A detailed qualitative analysis showed that follow-up stories function similarly to worksheets; they were easy to implement and effectively collected information on children's experiences during museum visits. However, writing stories allowed children to freely express their thoughts and experiences. Craft products provided a cognitive strategy for reflecting on field trips. It seems that the field trip to the historic museum acquired meaning through active interpretation by children and through combining the experiences and the information, which became real in the follow-up stories and craft products.