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Hello! My name is Elena, I live in a small town in Northern Italy and I teach Italian Language & Literature, History and Geography in a Lyceum. My main interestes are literature, art, cinema, travels, foreign languages and...lifelong learning!

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Since September 2017 I teach in a Lyceum, specializing in Applied Sciences. Before this, I have taught the same subjects in a Vocational School, for eleven years. I was involved in many projects and activities, including CLIL, former Comenius -now Erasmus+, eTwinning. Together with a group of colleagues, we tried to find new, different ways to involve and motivate our students. It was not always easy, but I could learn a lot and experimented with many methodological approaches. My new teaching environment is more 'traditional' let's say, more focused on the curriculum. And Humanities seem to be a secondary area of learning as opposed to scientific subjects. I'd like to show my students a new, more activive approach to Humanities, to prove them they're not dull, theoretical subjects.

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From the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Website: "Museums embody ideas about how people learn by offering opportunities for active learning and personal agency"

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Museums and other informal learning settings can invite students to become engaged in exhibits and activities. In this essay, Shari Tishman, lecturer in the Arts in Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education and research associate at Project Zero, discusses how museums embody ideas about how people learn by offering opportunities for active learning and personal agency. This essay is excerpted from the September 2005 College Art Association Newsletter.

Museums are designs for learning. Whether intentionally or not, museums embody views about what's worth learning, and the way that artworks, objects, and historical material are presented - from exhibitions to architecture to wall texts - embody views about how learning happens. This in itself is nothing new: museums have always been designed with edification in mind. But historically, museum education departments have been the only place where visitor learning is explicitly considered - and often only after exhibitions have been fully designed - despite the fact that beliefs about learning are present in all aspects of museum offerings and at all stages of exhibition design.

For the last decade or so, there has been a change afoot. As museums broaden their missions and search for new constituencies, learning is becoming a fresh and central concern for institutions as a whole, from curators to designers to directors. Across all departments, museums are increasingly seeing themselves as settings of learning theory in action.

As museums broaden their missions and search for new constituencies, learning is becoming a fresh and central concern for institutions as a whole, from curators to designers to directors. Across all departments, museums are increasingly seeing themselves as settings of learning theory in action.

Why mention learning theory? As a field of study, learning theory draws from such areas as cognitive science, education, and philosophy. Its goal is to help us understand how learning happens and how it can happen better. As museums bring a focus on learning to the fore, they become more aware of, and thoughtful about, their views - or theories - about how visitors learn. Learning theory provides a lens for examining how learning unfolds in all educational settings, formal and informal, and it can provide suggestions for how to design learning experiences effectively.

What does learning theory have to say about museums? One message is that museums are especially well suited to design visitor experiences that emphasize two general features of effective learning. One feature is active learning, which concerns the manner in which people engage with a learning experience. Another feature is personal agency, which considers the ways in which learners take charge of their own learning experiences. Here are a few words about each.

Active Learning

Active learning occurs when people stretch their minds to interact with the information and experiences at hand. In art museums, visitors are learning actively when they do such things as: formulate their own questions about works of art, reflect on their own ideas and impressions, make their own discerning judgments, construct their own interpretations, and seek their own personal connections. These sorts of behaviors are called active learning because they involve acting on available information-including information from one's own thoughts, feelings, and impressions - in order to form new ideas. Of course, not every moment of learning in a museum is, or even should be, active. There are times when passive learning can be wonderful, for instance, when a viewer stands in front of a painting and gloriously lets it wash over him or her, immersed in a flow of sensations. But in extended learning experiences, research shows that active learning is important: people learn more deeply and retain knowledge longer when they have opportunities to engage actively with the information and experiences at hand, even if these opportunities are punctuated with moments of passive receptivity. This is a general fact about cognition, as true in museums as it is in schools.

Personal Agency

As theaters of active learning, museums are distinct from schools and other formal educational settings in that they make their educational offerings quietly and without demand. In museums, visitors are free to move about at their own pace and to set their own agendas. They are free to choose whether to read wall text or take audio tours, free to follow a recommended trail through an exhibition or choose their own path. To be sure, freedom of choice in museums is not unlimited, and nor should it be. There are plenty of rules to follow, plenty of guiding information about what to look at and how to respond. But, by and large, museums invite learning rather than require it, which is why they are often called "free choice" or informal learning environments. This discretionary quality of experience is a signature feature of learning in museums. It is also a feature of good learning more generally. Research demonstrates that when people have some degree of personal agency - some range of choice about the shape and direction of their own learning activities - learning tends to be more meaningful and robust.

Designs for Learning

In art museums, active learning and personal agency are natural partners. When we're in charge of our own learning, we often do find opportunities to engage our minds, especially in environments rich with evocative objects and experiences.
A 2007 paper, "Study Center Learning, An Investigation of the Educational Power and Potential of the Harvard University Art Museums Study Centers," is available for additional related context.

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Museums and other informal learning settings can invite students to become engaged in exhibits and activities. In this essay, Shari Tishman, lecturer in the Arts in Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education and research associate at Project Zero, discusses how museums embody ideas about how people learn by offering opportunities for active learning and personal agency.

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Museums, in this article, include art, history, and specialty museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, botanic gardens, arboretums, nature centers, historic sites and similar institutions.

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Want to do something good for yourself and the people you love? Go to a museum.

Museums, in this article, include art, history, and specialty museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, botanic gardens, arboretums, nature centers, historic sites and similar institutions.

1. Museums make you feel good

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Times are tight in this economic climate, and it's often easy to use a museum admission price as an excuse to stay at home. However, a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive finds that people are happier when they spend money on experiences rather than material purchases. According to Leaf Van Boven, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at CU-Boulder, experiences are shown to create more happiness than material goods because they provide positive personal reinterpretations over time. That is, as we revisit the memory of our trip to the museum, we have a tendency to psychologically weed out any negative memories (should there be any). Experiences, such as visiting a museum, can also become a meaningful part of ones identity and contribute to successful social relationships in a manner that material items cannot. So consider foregoing an outing for items that you may not need; going to the museum will make you happier in the long run.

2. Museums make you smarter

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There is no doubt that a primary role of museums is to engage and educate the community. Museum exhibits inspire interest in an area of study, item, time period, or an idea- but there's more going on in museums in regard to education than one might think. Schools rely heavily on museums to enhance the their curriculum. The New York Museum Education Act, for example, aims to create a partnership between schools and cultural institutions to prepare students for the 21st century. Galleries are becoming classrooms, and not just for kids. Even the museums themselves have interesting histories to inspire and educate visitors. It becomes nearly impossible to exit a museum without having gained any information or insight during your visit.

3. Museums provide an effective way of learning

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Museums are examples of informal learning environments, which means they are devoted primarily to informal education - a lifelong process whereby individuals acquire attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment. Even outside of museums, informal learning plays a pivotal role in how we take in the world around us. In fact, The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 70% or more of work-related learning occurs outside formal training. A single visit to a museum can expose visitors to in-depth information on a subject, and the nature of the museum environment is one in which you can spend as much or as little time as you like exploring exhibits. The environment allows you to form your own unique experiences and take away information that interests you. Despite the success that museums have already had in educating visitors, there continue to be ongoing discussions among institutions in regard to increasing museums' ability to connect through informal learning.

4. Museums are community centers

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Museums are a lot more than collections of artifacts; they allow you to meet with neighbors, discuss thoughts and opinions, and become an active part of the community. There have been yoga classes at MoMA and Rock Band Summer Camps at the Experience Music Project. Museums are increasingly holding art chats, book signings, professional development classes, and even wine festivals and farmer's markets. Something is going on everywhere- just pull up the web page of a local museum (or hop on their Facebook page) and see what they have to offer!

5. Museums inspire

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Museums provide inspiration through personal connections with visitors, and not only on-site and through physical community outreach efforts; some even manage to connect through their social networks. These kinds of personal memories created at museums do not expire. Please check out this lovely video on the personal impact of museums, created by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance & the American Association of Museums.

6. Museums help bring change and development to communities

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Research has uncovered that creating community involvement is more about location than the activity at hand, and this kind of location-based learning (like the kind utilized in museums) is a trigger for change and development within the community. As museums are functioning more and more like community centers in providing access to current research and new ideas, they've become hot-spots for civic engagement. In museums, even (in some cases, especially) children are actively asked to take part in their communities. The promotion of education and the cultivation of conversation that are taking place in museums across the nation shapes and strengthens our neighborhoods.

7. Museums are a great way to spend time with friends and family

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Museums provide a great excuse to spend time with friends and family in a positive way. Personal connections can be made with museums and also with family members during visits. A day at the museum often translates to a day spent with loved ones as fathers and mothers transform into tour guides, and the environment provides a shared learning experience. Want to take a date to a museum? Here's how to do it

8. A museum may be your next community partner or business endeavour

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It takes a lot of employees to help run America's approximately 17,500 museums and it takes countless businesses and community partners to keep them functioning. Museums need everything from printing services, to video surveillance, to dino-glue- and they are inextricably woven into the web of American government and businesses. If you are not a direct business provider for a museum, you can get some great PR and possibly borrow an artifact or two for a big meeting if you are willing to contribute a monetary gift to a museum. Alternatively, you can follow the lead of these entrepreneurs who are creating their own museums. Or, at the very least, business men and entrepreneurs can trace the development of the National Museum of Entrepreneurship in Denver, and perhaps pay them a visit within the next few years.

9. Museums need your support in order to keep educating and inspiring people

Many museums are nonprofit entities with missions to educate and inspire audiences - and that means that they need the support of visitors, members, and donors in order to keep on fulfilling those missions. Sadly, many people don't even know that museums are nonprofit organizations! Often, a membership pays itself off in as few as three annual visits to a museum, and you can come back and visit the museum again and again all year round. If you like a cultural organization and you want to keep it around for decades to come (so that you may bring your great-grandchildren), make a donation or fill out that membership card with pride! In many ways, supporting a museum through visitation or - even better - through membership or philanthropic support - is a way of strengthening communities and giving back so that the museum can create impactful programs that fulfill its mission.

10. There is a museum close to you

According to the American Association of Museums (now the American Alliance of Museums since the original publication of this post) museums average approximately 865 million visits per year or 2.3 million visits per day. That's a lot of museum visits! It doesn't hurt that there are museums in every state. To find one near you, try the Official Museum Directory. By conducting a search on the Internet, you may find some rather unusual and interesting museums worth checking out. From the Museum of Wooden Nickles in San Antonio, to the Asphault Museum in Rohnert Park, California, there is certainly something for everyone.

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10 Reasons to Visit a Museum - Colleen Dilenschneider

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Want to do something good for yourself and the people you love? Go to a museum. Museums, in this article, include art, history, and specialty museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, botanic gardens, arboretums, nature centers, historic sites and similar institutions.Read More ›

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Nina Simon's enlighting essay

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Part 2: Participation in Practice Chapter 5: Defining Participation at Your Institution Chapter 6: Contributing to Institutions Chapter 7: Collaborating with Visitors Chapter 8: Co-creating with Visitors Chapter 9: Hosting Participants Chapter 10: Evaluating Participatory Projects Chapter 11: Managing and Sustaining Participation

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Museums as constructors of knowledge : A Coggle Diagram about What would be the best way to fit a museum visit into my curriculum?, How would I follow up their experience? and How would I prepare mystudents to benefit from such interactive experiences?

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Organizing a museum visit is not easy and must done well in advance here - First of all, there are practical things to think of, like hiring a bus, collecting money from the kids and collect the parents' consent forms (for the trip), book the entrance tickets... If we want to have a museum guide, this must be planned and pre-booked also. But apart from this, I think we as teachers should carefully plan the visit in order to make it relevant (for our curriculum) and meaningful (for the students). So some preparations is needed, like:- Why are we going to the museum? =  Brainstorm about the topics we are going to learn about at the museum. Discuss the aims of the visit and learning goals with our students.- What are we going to do there? = Learn about the museum itself, its plan, facilities, history, collections (with the help of the Internet). Prepare worksheets about the artifacts/objects/documents we are going to focus on. Prepare questions to ask the guide (if any). Discuss how the itinerary could help us learn more about a given topic. The most important thing, I think, is not considering this 'a trip', a passtime, but make students well aware of its learning relevance, connecting the visit directly to our curriculum.

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My students attend a Secondary School and are aged 16+, they are quite used to visit museums and art galleries with their families as well as a part of school activities.After having planned the learning goals and learnt about the museum (plan, collections in general etc), teachers during the visit should be 'facilitators' i.e. help interact with the artifacts - asking questions, promoting discussions, drawing the students' attention to some specific object etc. Of course, teachers should also be always involved in the museum visit, along with the students. Students should be encouraged to take notes, sketches and (if the museum allows it) take photos of the relevant or interesting objects. Even if my students are 'older', they need to be actively involved in the visit-filling in worksheets, discussing, asking and answering questions etc.

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This is my short presentation on Virtual Museum Visits

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Neat Neutral Colours Typographic Presentation

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My students attend a Lyceum specializing in Applied Sciences, so I was thinking about a follow-up activity on Renaissance science after visiting the Museo Bagatti Valsecchi in Milan. There are some XVI century science objects which can be used as a starting point to discuss the evolution of science leading to Galileo's discoveries. Students (aged 16-17)  are asked to make a thinglink, summarizing information about the Museum, the Renaissance in general, and more specifically, science during the XVI century. This is just an example!

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Museo Bagatti Valsecchi - Renaissance &Science by Elena FP

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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I decided to analyze one of the artifacts in the "Museo Bagatti Valsecchi" in Milan. It is a historic house museum in the heart of the town, totally refurbished and decorated with XV and XVI century paintings and decorative arts, artifacts, utensils, jewelry, arms etc. A very interesting object is this Terrestrial globe dating back to 1579. This can be used in 3rd grade (Secondary school) to discuss the geographical discoveries between the XV and the XVI century, with links to literature, geography and philosophy.-Pre-visit: how was the Earth conceived during the antiquity and the Middle Ages? (references: Literature-Dante's Divine Comedy, Philosophy-Anassimandrus' and Aristotheles' hypothesis; History: Ptolomeus)-During visit: how does this globe differ from modern ones? Can you say why? - After visit: compare maps drawn between the XII and the XIV century. What kind of philosphical or religious view of the Earth to they convey? Why was the discovery of America a cultural revolution? How does this Globe reflect it?

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My lesson plan is focusing on this museum in Milan.

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Visita virtuale | Scopri tutte le stanze del Museo Bagatti Valsecchi.

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Esplora dal tuo computer tutte le stanze della Casa Museo milanese dei Baroni Bagatti Valsecchi grazie alla visita virtuale.