Why are museums a good partner for reforming science education?
Although both museums and schools are learning environments, their strategies for reaching learners are very different. It is these differences that can be valuable for schools trying to implement science standards and improve their overall level of science instruction. Constructivist learning. A museum provides an informal, constructivist environment for learning; an approach popularized by Howard Gardner in his book, “The Unschooled Mind.” Unlike the classroom where often a teacher guides a group of students through a standardized set of activities, in a museum, visitors are free to explore what interests them. The visitor’s curiosity drives learning, not assignments and tests. In museums, visitors develop their own narratives based on what they see and experience and how this interacts with their own lives. This means that as teachers try to develop instructional plans where students are to discover rather than be taught, museums can be helpful in showing how to do this. As a museum
