The Opinions of Primary School Teachers Regarding to the Use of Museums in Science Courses

Nil Duban

doi:10.11114/jets.v7i2.3842

Abstract

Museums provide the opportunity to handle real objects, solve problems, and interact with others. And also they are perfect places to ask our own questions, and try to discover the answer. So in many courses, teachers use museums as a learning environment for teaching the subject matter. The purpose of this research is to determine the opinions of primary school teachers about using museums in science courses. In the current research, the qualitative research method and semi-structured interview technique was used. Participants of the study were identified through intense case sampling. The participants of this research were primary school teachers who enrolled in the master program of The Graduate School of Afyon Kocatepe University. The data were collected through audio-taped semi-structured interviews. A semi-structured interview schedule was developed by the researcher. The credibility of this study was enhanced by expert review. The semi-structured interview schedule was sent to experts for review. The trustworthiness of this study was established by the formula proposed by Miles and Huberman. The data of this research are analyzing through content analysis technique. Findings were supported with direct quotes of participants’ opinions.

Highlights

The most comprehensive definition of the museum was made by the International Council of Museums, ICOM, reflecting the contemporary concept of museology
It is concluded that class teachers participated in this study believed that benefiting from museums in science courses provides both cognitive and affective benefits
In line with the views of the teacher, it is concluded that museums, which are non-school learning environment, provides opportunities that contributed to the learning by doing and living

Summary

Introduction

The most comprehensive definition of the museum was made by the International Council of Museums, ICOM, reflecting the contemporary concept of museology. ICOM (2006) defined the museum as follows: "Museum is an institution which is in the service of society and the development of it, open to public, aims to work on tangible or intangible evidence and (a) belongs to people or the environment around them, gathers (b) people to educate them and (c) entertain them It is a sustainable non-profit institution that protects, researches and displays these by communicating with the society." In short, museums are places where all kinds of objects that belong to the history of civilization are exhibited under scientific rules, that enriches the public's taste and cultural accumulation, and they are places where the historical data of the researchers are facilitated, developed, and passed on to future generations (ICOM, 2017). Museum education is an active, lively, participatory and innovative process, which is established between the museum's collections and the visitor's interest (Greenhill, 1992)

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