Teaching Archaeology in a University Museum: Archaeology Museum at Sultan Qaboos University as a Case Study

Abstract

Learning environment plays an important role in the quality of the learning process, particularly in teaching archaeology. Museum environment is among the active environments contributing to this process in which it enables students to acquire skills different from those they acquire in the traditional classroom. Museums generally consist of a variety of artefacts and material that are displayed to the public, preserved, maintained and studied. University museums have an additional function: they are used as spaces for teaching and training students at all levels, particularly in the field of archaeology. Students in the museum can deal with its collections, as well as educational programs offered by their professors. A university museum offers university students with materials suitable for the study and research. It has the ability to hold a variety of educational activities, and it stimulates students' interest and motivates them to think creatively. This studyassumes that studying archaeology courses within the university museum is more useful for students than teaching within the traditional classroom of the university. To test this hypothesis, the Department of Archaeology in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University and its archaeology museum were taken as a case study. A number of archaeological courses are taught within this museum, while other courses are taught in traditional classrooms. In order to determine the impact of teaching of archaeological courses in the University Archaeology Museum, a questionnaire was designed to measure the degree of such an effect. It was distributed to all students studying archaeology courses in the spring of the academic year 2019 in the Department of Archaeology. The results indicate that the majority of students believe that the courses they studied at the museum contributed significantly to increasing their academic achievement and understanding of their contents more than those they studied in the normal classroom. The study has suggested the importance of using the university museum as a teaching environment that motivates students. Such environment is an important interactive source of teaching and its development and quality.