Dear GEM members,
I am a third year Archaeology student who was directed towards this site in the hope of
finding some case studies or museums to work with for my dissertation. Here is my basic
introduction of what I want to do:
Working title: How effective are museum visits for Key Stage 2?
The National Curriculum for history, states under the heading of 'historical enquiry' that
students should use a range of sources, documentary and non-documentary 'artefacts,
historic buildings and visits to museums, galleries and sites'. How effective are these
visits? I am going to look at whether museum trips increase children's understanding of
the past; I want to see if these visits provide something more than text-book learning in
classrooms. Children often find it hard to grasp the concept of time and past events and
'chronological understanding' is one of the skills taught to children from the age of five.
How best to teach is heavily debated and there are many theories on how we learn. As
this is a huge subject I will narrow down my research to history in the National
Curriculum for England for ages 7 to 11. I will study the curriculum, explore the
relationship between schools and museums and look at education theory.
The only thing I am lacking is data to apply my research to. If anyone knows of data I
can use, or schools/museums that would be willing to work with me - I would be very
grateful.
Many thanks,
Elizabeth Warry
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