Museum Education

Teachers today face many challenges and one of the most important is that they need to make children develop enthusiasm for the knowledge they provide. One way to achieve that is to bring children out of the classroom and let them discover the knowledge given in other forms of education, such as a museum. Most people regard museums as non-easily approachable places, especially made for certain categories of the public, rather boring and reflecting an older, no contemporary era, nevertheless the educational role of museums has been identified as “the core to museums' service to the public”. The public dimensions of museums leads them to perform the public service of education—a term that in its broadest sense includes exploration, study, observation, critical thinking, contemplation and dialogue.
When this program is completed, the participants will have the opportunity to realize the importance of the pedagogical role of the Museums and be able to organize an educational visit to a museum. The course is structured on exploring the benefits of formal and informal learning, using pedagogical methodologies to planning investigations, analyze and interpret the results.

- Objectives
By the end of the course participants - Improve their teaching in museums and encourage the collaboration between schools and Museums.
- Develop pedagogical methodologies for producing and apply knowledge by
schools and museums.
- Support teachers to encourage the creativity of their pupils.
- Discover how the objects may help in education and get familiar with different methods of learning, such as exploratory learning.
Organize lessons using the informal teaching method in a museum.

-Target Groups
Teachers working in kindergartens, primary schools, lower secondary schools.

- Methods & Tools
Lectures, exercises, discussions, teamwork, role-playing, study visits.

Agenda
Day 1
✓ Introductory meeting, explanation of practical arrangements, presentation of timetable, information about course venue.
✓ Icebreakers, Introduction to the Course

Day 2
✓ Learning in Museums.
✓ Learning with Objects.

Day 3
✓ Learning with Objects at the Kazantzakis Museum in Myrtia of Heraklion. (Case study).
✓ Schools and Museums working together.

Day 4
✓ Project case studies in a Museum.
✓ Hands-on activities

Day 5
✓ Educational programs and laboratories at Natural History Museum of Crete

Day 6
✓ Educational programs in virtual museums.
✓ Working on projects in groups.

Day 7
✓ Finalizing work on projects.
✓ Projects presentations.
✓ Course Evaluation
✓ Certifications