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Teaching Children

Persistent Identifier
https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10408

Teaching school children is one of the prime reasons why we have archaeological open-air museums. Many education centres only serve school groups, and are not even open to day visitors. Examples can be found in Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. At these centres and open-air museums, a kind of informal learning makes children learn much more than just book-knowledge. They learn that situations can be approached in different ways and there are different ‘correct’ solutions. Informal learning is a welcome addition to school life and reaches more than just the mainstream of each class.

Featured

Time travel – a Great Method to Strengthen Cooperation between Museums and Schools. The Experience of Nationwide Time Travels in Estonia.

Author(s)
Kaari Siemer 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2024/1
In Estonia the method of Time Travel has been used for more than 10 years. While the first time travels were conducted in a rather casual and modest way, a change took place in 2016 with the first nationwide project. By today more than 23 000 students have participated in the nationwide time travel events and it has become an important way of cooperation for museums and schools.

Experimental Archaeology and Tacit Learning: Textiles in the Classroom

Author(s)
Jennifer Beamer 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Archaeology benefits from the integrated approaches generated from experimental archaeology and tacit learning because they afford a deeper exploration of our interpretations of the archaeological record. Though these benefits are generally supported by the discipline at large, experimental and experiential studies tend to remain interesting rather than influential. Introducing pedagogical practices which use these...

Warrior Training in Sagnlandet Lejre – An Exercise in Community, Camaraderie and Cooperation

Author(s)
Jutta Eberhards 1 ✉,
Søren R. Stadsholt 1,
Peter R. Christensen 1
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Sagnlandet Lejre is a Knowledge Pedagogical Activity Centre that explores, disseminates and preserves knowledge and trades on traditional historical and prehistoric crafts and living. Since 1964, as the Historical Archaeological Dissemination and Research Centre, Sagnlandet Leire has been a Historical Workshop that makes abstract knowledge concrete, and makes the complex, simple...

Art in the Serra: Project of Heritage Experiences in the Territory of the Serra Da Capivara National Park (BR)

Author(s)
Jorlan da Silva Oliveira 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/1
In 2013 a team of researchers in collaboration with the community in the municipality of Coronel José Dias, around Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí-Brazil, created the Olho D 'Água Institute and since then has been developing research and didactic experiments with the communities. The project entitled Arte na Serra aims to engage communities...

Taking Archaeological Concepts outside the Social Science Class in Indian Schools

Author(s)
Smriti Haricharan 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
In Indian classrooms, social sciences receive disproportionately less attention than natural sciences and mathematics (Dahiya, 2003; Lall and House, 2005; Roy, 2017). History features within the social science textbooks in India, and is perceived as boring and uninteresting by school children (Roy, 2017; Dahiya, 2003); archaeology is taught as part of the history lessons and is most often not seen as...

Beyond School - Workshops in Experimental Archaeology at the Museum (Romania)

Author(s)
Vasile Diaconu 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/2
Experimental archaeology, as an educational means, has become a particularly useful practice in museum institutions in Romania, although there is no tradition in this field. Here, we present activities of the History and Ethnography Museum in Târgu Neamţ, where several experimental archaeology workshops were organised for pupils aged between 9 and 12 years. Participants were introduced to the prehistoric technologies...

Vacation in the Past - Effective Heritage Interpretation through Education

Author(s)
Réka Vasszi 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1
2018 EXARC in Kernave
***Heritage sites are breathing memories from the past; however, visitors can hardly imagine or experience the ancient life on the spot. In fact, these visits are supposed to conjure up journeys back into the past and park managers should facilitate such experiences by the most effective means possible in order to help tourists gain...

Discussion: Working with Knives in Archaeological Open-Air Museums

Author(s)
Sally Pointer 1 ✉,
Aidan O'Sullivan 2,
Lasse van den Dikkenberg 3,
Roeland Paardekooper 4,
David Freeman 5,
Renate Greiner 6,
Pascale Barnes 7,
Håkan Lindström 8,
Katy Whitaker 9,
Luke Winter 10,
Antonis Vlavogilakis 11,
Bill Schindler 12,13
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2016/2
This is an extract from a lengthy and lively Facebook discussion in the Archaeological Open Air Museums group, started on the 5th of February 2016 by Roeland Paardekooper, at that time in the...

Summer Camp for Experimental Archaeology in the Eindhoven Museum (NL)

Author(s)
Lasse van den Dikkenberg 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/4
Every year the Dutch Youth Association for History (NJBG) organizes several summer camps for children and young adults. Since the Eindhoven Museum was founded in 1982 the Workgroup for Experimental Archaeology (WEA) has organised activities in the museum which are concerned with experimental archaeology.

Museum Theatre in Greece: Perspectives in Site Interpretation

Author(s)
Foteini Venieri 1,2,3 ✉,
Niki Nikonanou 4
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/2

Introduction

Museum theatre as an umbrella-term is used to describe a variety of performative events aimed to interpret fragments of cultural heritage. In the framework of one of the main challenges contemporary museums face, that of having a social impact while dealing with heritage, whom values and narratives can always be “contested and disputed” (Smith 2011, 70), museum theatre has proved that not only can it enforce a constructivist approach in a museum environment but it can also generate debate and promote critical thinking on controversial issues (Farthing 2010).

“You could See it [the Past] in your Mind”: What Impact might Living History Performance Have on the Historical Consciousness of Young People?

Author(s)
Ceri Jones 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2014/1

Combining theoretical perspectives with two case studies carried out in 2008 with British students aged from 10-17 years old, this paper will explore how living history might contribute to the development of young people’s historical consciousness and help them to cope with the social and cultural differences which confront them when learning about the past. In particular, it will focus on the effectiveness of first- and third-person interpretation.

A Playground Amongst Museums - The Bauspielplatz: from an Open-air Youth Centre to a History Experience Site - an Unusual Development

Author(s)
Frank Kock 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2013/2
Being a Bauspielplatz [adventure playground] usually means that children have a place to meet, play, be creative, get in contact with animals and nature and even do ‘dangerous’ things - with some pedagogical guidance. It is part of local social work, similar to a youth centre...

Public Outreach in the Drents Museum in Assen (NL)

Author(s)
Blue van der Zwan-Deen 1 ✉
Publication Date
EXARC Journal Issue 2012/2
Part of my job as museum teacher at the Drents Museum in Assen is attending to the all the groups that visit our museum. This includes the great number of children, both elementary school and high school students, that visit our museum. A lot of children think of a museum as a boring place where there is nothing to do but look at old paintings...