REFLECTION ON A TRAINING SEMINAR ABOUT SCIENCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN MUSEUMS OF GENERAL INTEREST

Abstract

The paper reflects on a 4-month training seminar offered to in-service teachers of primary education in Epirus region which introduced a coalition between science and museum education. It follows an expansive learning cycle and aims to a meaningful improvement of teachers’ practices on science education. The present paper presents the level of participants’ satisfaction with the seminar, the design framework SciEPIMGI (Science Education Program In Museums of General Interest), and the Moodle platform used. It also studies under a cultural-historical perspective, the constraints participants encountered during the seminar and finally, the transferability of the design framework in museums beyond the Archaeological museum of Ioannina, where it was first tested. The above are studied through empirical data collected from a questionnaire with close- and open -ended questions and the qualitative analysis of the participants’ final projects. The results overall show high levels of satisfaction and constraints which are connected with contradictions and conflicts of motives. Participants’ final projects reveal that teachers have designed science education programs for different kinds of museums such as folklore, art, historical, archaeological and a thematic museum of Epirus region.