ONLINE ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC
CHALLENGES TO SOCIAL
SCIENCE MUSEUM

SUBMITTED TO

SUBMITTED BY

ANUPAMA TEACHER

STEPHY G

LECTURER IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

OPTION: SOCIAL SCIENCE

FMTC, MYLAPURE

FMTC, MYLAPURE

INDEX
SL. NO

CONTENT

PAGE NO

Introduction

Definition of

museum
3

Steps of museum

6-7

education
4

Museum education

8-13

with regards to
social studies
5

Museum to people

14

Museum to schools

15-16

Conclusion

17

Reference

18

INTRODUCTION

Museum is remarked by the Mudaliar commission about museums

that in the age of great changes in the field of education, they play a
great part in the education of school children as they become home to
them much more vividly than any prosaic lecture, discoveries of the past
and the various developments that have taken place in many fields of
science and technology. In most modern schools of today, museums are
getting full attention to improve the standard of education. Besides, the
instinct of collecting and possessing is strong in all children. They have
to be directed to sublimate this instinct to collect things and display them
in school museum. It would mean that their instinct has properly been
utilized for educational enrichment and a museum is used as a place of
study.

DEFINITION OF MUSEUM
A museum is defined as a non - profit making permanent
institution, in the service of the society and its development and open to
the public, which acquires, conserves, communicates and exhibits,
researches for the purpose of study, education and enjoyment, material
evidence of men and his environment". This declaration made in the
Copenhagen 10th General Assembly of the International Council of
Museums held in 1974 which is fairly comprehensive. American
Association of Museums defines a museum as An organized and
permanent, non-profit institution essentially educational or aesthetic in
purpose, with professional staff which owns and utilizes tangible
objects, earns for them and exhibits them to the public on some regular
schedule. This author defines a museum as a service provider for the
spread of knowledge.
Unless the hearts and minds of the people are exposed to works
of art and elevated to a higher creative plane, they generally tend to
remain at the animal level below the teaching of civilization.

M.S Randhawa

There are many more definitions of museums that lay most emphasis on
their role on education. The educational activities within the museums
must be ready to provide a great variety of methods through which
people can receive insights into and enjoyment of collections. The
presence of objects that do not know the boundaries of Language and
literacy helps museums to be on advantageous position compared to
other public service agencies, to serve as socially relevant agency for the
education and development of the community.

STEPS OF MUSEUM EDUCATION

Museum educations must be conducted in a planned way. Museum
planning is divided into three as before museum, during museum and
after museum. Studies before museum are processes of planning people
and conditions. The trainer that conducts the study will decide on the
group he will work with. He gets necessary permissions and dates and
prepares the trip plan based on the groups characteristic. He informs the
group about the study and provides them with the necessary materials.
He informs the officials in museum about the day, time and the
characteristics of the group. Studies in the museum are pre-planned but
open to necessary changes based on the conditions, addressing to
different perceptions and emotions, educational, fun, creative and
available for open thinking applications. It is not necessary to see the
whole museum in this study. Most of the time this study includes
creative drama and workshops, which are focusing on an object, an idea,
a thought that are supporting new acquisitions. In museum education
studies, studies towards handcrafting, writing, creative drama, studies on
voice, smell and taste, studies on living history or oral history etc. can be
used as a method. The results of the museum studies are evaluated in the
museum or in school. The products of the activity (painting, fabric,
mask, sculpture etc.) that are created in workshops can be displayed as
an exhibit. The intellectual outcomes of the studies are put forward in

forms of applications, such as composition, debate, letter and report. In

social studies lesson there can be different activities in a planned
museum trip. Within the culture and heritage learning sphere, prior to
museum trip architectural exploration, photography animation, clock
tower, our traditions: ancestor sports and games, during the museum trip
young archeologists, ritual organization, design hunt in carpet and rugs,
slabs; after the museum trip mutual culture heritage project, museum
presentation posters and brochures, costume designing in the museum
and time capsule activities can be done.

MUSEUM EDUCATION WITH REGARDS TO

SOCIAL STUDIES
Museums are ideal learning and practice centers where people
learn while having fun and where they enjoy learning. Discovery
rooms that are aiming to learn through discovery and full with materials
that encourage the visitor to discover, artificial or historical structures
or even settlements where past is revived, science museums that are
interactive exhibits where details of technology and science take place
concretely, give their visitors more than a learning done in a classical
classroom atmosphere (lhan et al, 2006:20).School has lost its priority
and qualification being first to be remembered when learning and
education are mentioned. Understanding of addition of differences to
education today is considered together with many factors that can
contribute to childrens learning and education. It is clear that museums
are indispensable parts of the education. When the educational
characteristic of museums is taken into consideration, the results of
childrens benefits from them can be listed as below:
Children learn to develop their knowledge and they gain the habit of
comparing them with the knowledge in the books. Children have the
chance to see the real life objects that were used in historical periods.
They try to make connection between historical events and the life
objects of that period. This situation helps them gain true history

awareness. In their minds they compare the differences and similarities

between the objects today and objects in museum.
Children develop their sense of observation, logic, creativity and
taste.
They develop their sense of aesthetics.
They learn creative thinking.
Museums show children that development and change is
unavoidable.
It teaches to think and to evaluate the events in all aspects
(thinking with multiple perspectives)
In addition, children learn different cultures.
They obtain consciousness to protect cultural values they own

Museums are not only places where old artifacts are protected and
displayed but also active learning places where one can have fun
walking around and much knowledge can be attained in this trip.
Learning today is not only through teachers lectures but also with
the abilities and research instinct of the learners. Learning in a
museum is a composite of activities where the individuals
research and learning curiosity is awakened and this curiosity is
met through teachers guidance. Because museums are not
demanding a certain certificate or grade, and most of the time

voluntariness is of essence, they provide a wider place compared

with the traditional school boundaries to their participants or free
learning area for their visitors. Some of the ability and values that
are aimed through museum education in social studies are like this:
Gathering, recording, organizing and presenting data from cultural
heritage themed activities, creating a sense of protection and
sustentation of old artifacts, creating toleration and awareness
towards different civilization and cultures, evaluating cultural
heritage with aesthetics and beauty concepts. As a result of these
activities students gain a lot of ability and values related with daily
lives. Some of them are like this: He can differentiate between
local and universal, thinking and imagination develops through
games and animations, researching abilities develop, respects
different ideas and compares modern day life with the past.
In social studies education there are many outdoor activities (land works,
community services) and one of the important of these is museums. As a
part of social studies, the students must be taken to museums. Especially
in teaching history or gaining national consciousness, museums are
effective classrooms. When museums are compared with schools,
universities and libraries, they provide different learning options for the
learner. One of the advantages of museums is that they have wider
visitor potential. Museums provide opportunities for the identity

development. While the visitors are interested in the objects and

information in a museum, they discover themselves and reflections of
their culture. This phase helps the learner make new connections, make
sense and learn. Museums had some educational purposes. Museums can
be defined as free-optioned or informal learning environments. Freeoptioned concept; can be used for the learning situations where the
individual guides himself, encouraged by voluntariness, personal need
and interests, and aiming towards widening the life. According to the
theory of multiple intelligences and constructivist approach, learning
ways of the learners may vary. Because the museums create their own
learning environment, the date the students receive will be more. The
gains coming from the teacher or guides leadership will achieve their
purpose. There are many benefits of the usage of museums in social
studies lesson.
Museums help students understand the values of historical artifacts and
cultural properties of the past protect the cultural heritage and internalize
multiculturalism by tolerating different cultures. The collections
displayed in the museums contribute their critical thinking abilities on
the past and history discipline through helping them to see how past is
evaluated. Collected and displayed objects or collections in the museums
also help the protection of national identity, culture and memory, and
help them handing down the historical and cultural heritage to next

generations. Apart from these benefits, museums help the formation and
development of abilities like observation, using imagination and
creativity, and emotions like aesthetics or like. It concretizes the lesson
like social studies, in which there are many abstract concepts and a lot of
object teaching. Due to these reasons, museums have the potential to
enable the realization of the goals stated by the social studies curriculum
as well as history education curriculum in an effective way. Due to these
contributions of museums to social studies and history education, it is
emphasized that museums should be used for educational purposes and
it is advised for social studies learning methods class in undergraduate
programs must include museum education.

MUSEUM TO PEOPLE
Due to lack of awareness and transport facilities a large number of
people could not able to see even the nearby museum. To overcome this
problem, museum should organize mobile exhibitions on bus, truck, jeep
and special vehicles. Replicas, facsimiles and few original objects, film
units lectures illustrated with slides are arranged in this van, which
moves from place to place. The periodical exhibitions organized on
different aspects of Indian art, culture, flora and fauna and applied
sciences may be circulated from time to time for the benefit of the
students as well as the general public. The other vital areas like the
health, hygiene, agriculture etc. should also be covered. The museums
must undertake the socio-economic and cultural surveys to identify the
Public of their respective areas in order to formulate their educational
programmes for the community.

MUSEUM TO SCHOOLS
Every school should aim at developing a small school museum by
taking aid and advice from the museum personal. It should contain
collection of specimens made by students, pictures, charts, and models
relevant to school curriculum. School children are excellent collectors
and if a call will be given by their teachers, they can assemble such
valuable collections of natural history objects, photographs, object of art
and so on. The museums also should supply selected replicas, objects,
miniatures and painting. It will take the message of the museum to the
doorsteps of the children. It will highly be useful both to the students
and teachers. In the process of learning through observation and
discovery, museums are adjuncts to school education. The potential of
museums as institution that could implement and supplement School
education has been organized all over the world. Programmes for School
children have always been among the most frequent educational
offerings of museums. The frequent visits of young pupils to museums,
not only supplement their classroom teachings, but also create a love of
beauty in many forms; which if properly absorbed in this formative stage
of mind, will lead to a wider understanding and sometimes create
specialized interest for the future. Museums could contribute to School
education in many ways, the most important being, visual

communication through objects and materials. Subjects like History,

Geography, Art, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Health and Hygiene,
Natural Sciences and even Mathematics could come alive more vividly
and effectively through exhibits in museums representing the disciplines.
Educational experiences obtainable in museums for school children may
fall into two categories, experiences directly relevant to the school
curriculum and experiences that provide a broader perspective for
improving the general knowledge of students in different areas of
humanities and sciences. To achieve these objectives of museum
education relevant to school children, museum authorities should make
conscious efforts in providing these required medium of communication.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion we can say that the history room, history library and
history museum are three essential components to provide a history
teacher a home, create a congenial academic environment for teaching
learning process in history. By utilizing the history museum as a center
of great recreation, learning and collection of different specimens for
excellent display, we shall be doing great service to the teaching
learning process of the subject which has by now gained a distinct status
in school curriculum. The subject itself, by virtue of its nature and scope,
deserves all the three things- room, library and museum- to overcome
the walk- chalk- talk method of teaching .

REFERENCES
1. Hooper-Greenhill (Ed.) The Educational Role of the Museums,
London, 1996.
2. Sud P.D. Museums- Media of Mass Education with special reference
to India. Journal of Indian Museum, vol. 37,1981, P.P.48-55.
3. Venugopal, Museum Education.
4. Biswas, T.K. Museum and Education, New Age International (P.)Ltd.,
New Delhi, 1996
5. Pant G.N., Museums, their Educational potential. Journal of Indian
Museums, vol. XXXIX, 1983,New Delhi, P.P. 5-9.
6. ICOM, 1974, Definition by the International Council of Museum,
adopted in its status of 1974.This also forms the basis of ICOM code of
professional Ethics, approved in 1986.
7. Nigam, M.L., Fundamentals of Museology, Hyderabad, 1985,
P.P.127-139.
8. Nigam, M.L., Museum Research and Education in Indian context.
Journal of Indian Museums,
vol.XXXVIII, 1982, New Delhi. P.P.1-7.
9. Khanna, S.L., Use of Museums for education, Journal of Indian
Museums, vol.XXXVIII, 1982,New Delhi, P.P.40-41.
10. Harison Molly, Education in Museums, The organization of
museum, practical advice, UNESCO,Paris, 1960, P.P.81-92.

QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Maximum and proper use of the -----------------------(Space, materials, time)
2. Museum planning is divided in to _________
(Three, five, one)
3. Use of varied _____lights
(Size. colored, low prize)
4. Museum should become a centre of activity for children and
teachers to increase their___________
(Attitude, knowledge, ability)
5. Museum is remarked by the ____ commission
(Mudaliar, Dr S Radhakrishnan, Venugopal)

Corrected by Anupama M R
Asst. prof. in Social Science