Teaching Children

Persistent Identifier
https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10408

Teaching school children is one of the prime reasons why we have archaeological open-air museums. Many education centres only serve school groups, and are not even open to day visitors. Examples can be found in Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. At these centres and open-air museums, a kind of informal learning makes children learn much more than just book-knowledge. They learn that situations can be approached in different ways and there are different ‘correct’ solutions. Informal learning is a welcome addition to school life and reaches more than just the mainstream of each class.

Featured

Experimental Archaeology and Tacit Learning: Textiles in the Classroom

Jennifer Beamer (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Interpretation
Archaeology benefits from the integrated approaches generated from experimental archaeology and tacit learning because they afford a deeper exploration of our interpretations of the archaeological record. Though these benefits are generally supported by the discipline at large, experimental and experiential studies tend to remain interesting rather than influential. Introducing pedagogical practices which use these...

Warrior Training in Sagnlandet Lejre – An Exercise in Community, Camaraderie and Cooperation

Jutta Eberhards,
Søren R. Stadsholt and
Peter R. Christensen (DK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/3
Mixed Matters
Sagnlandet Lejre is a Knowledge Pedagogical Activity Centre that explores, disseminates and preserves knowledge and trades on traditional historical and prehistoric crafts and living. Since 1964, as the Historical Archaeological Dissemination and Research Centre, Sagnlandet Leire has been a Historical Workshop that makes abstract knowledge concrete, and makes the complex, simple...

Art in the Serra: Project of Heritage Experiences in the Territory of the Serra Da Capivara National Park (BR)

Jorlan da Silva Oliveira (BR)
EXARC Journal Issue 2020/1
Mixed Matters
In 2013 a team of researchers in collaboration with the community in the municipality of Coronel José Dias, around Serra da Capivara National Park, Piauí-Brazil, created the Olho D 'Água Institute and since then has been developing research and didactic experiments with the communities. The project entitled Arte na Serra aims to engage communities...

Taking Archaeological Concepts outside the Social Science Class in Indian Schools

Smriti Haricharan (IN)
EXARC Journal Issue 2019/2
Interpretation
In Indian classrooms, social sciences receive disproportionately less attention than natural sciences and mathematics (Dahiya, 2003; Lall and House, 2005; Roy, 2017). History features within the social science textbooks in India, and is perceived as boring and uninteresting by school children (Roy, 2017; Dahiya, 2003); archaeology is taught as part of the history lessons and is most often not seen as...

Beyond School - Workshops in Experimental Archaeology at the Museum (Romania)

Vasile Diaconu (RO)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/2
Mixed Matters
Experimental archaeology, as an educational means, has become a particularly useful practice in museum institutions in Romania, although there is no tradition in this field. Here, we present activities of the History and Ethnography Museum in Târgu Neamţ, where several experimental archaeology workshops were organised for pupils aged between 9 and 12 years. Participants were introduced to the prehistoric technologies...

Vacation in the Past - Effective Heritage Interpretation through Education

Réka Vasszi (HU)
EXARC Journal Issue 2018/1
Archaeological Open-Air Museum
2018 EXARC in Kernave
***Heritage sites are breathing memories from the past; however, visitors can hardly imagine or experience the ancient life on the spot. In fact, these visits are supposed to conjure up journeys back into the past and park managers should facilitate such experiences by the most effective means possible in order to help tourists gain...

Summer Camp for Experimental Archaeology in the Eindhoven Museum (NL)

Lasse van den Dikkenberg (NL)
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/4
Mixed Matters
Every year the Dutch Youth Association for History (NJBG) organizes several summer camps for children and young adults. Since the Eindhoven Museum was founded in 1982 the Workgroup for Experimental Archaeology (WEA) has organised activities in the museum which are concerned with experimental archaeology.

Museum Theatre in Greece: Perspectives in Site Interpretation

Foteini Venieri and
Nikonanou Niki (GR)
EXARC Journal Issue 2015/2
Interpretation

Introduction

Museum theatre as an umbrella-term is used to describe a variety of performative events aimed to interpret fragments of cultural heritage. In the framework of one of the main challenges contemporary museums face, that of having a social impact while dealing with heritage, whom values and narratives can always be “contested and disputed” (Smith 2011, 70), museum theatre has proved that not only can it enforce a constructivist approach in a museum environment but it can also generate debate and promote critical thinking on controversial issues (Farthing 2010).

“You could See it [the Past] in your Mind”: What Impact might Living History Performance Have on the Historical Consciousness of Young People?

Ceri Jones (UK)
EXARC Journal Issue 2014/1
Interpretation

Combining theoretical perspectives with two case studies carried out in 2008 with British students aged from 10-17 years old, this paper will explore how living history might contribute to the development of young people’s historical consciousness and help them to cope with the social and cultural differences which confront them when learning about the past. In particular, it will focus on the effectiveness of first- and third-person interpretation.

A Playground Amongst Museums - The Bauspielplatz: from an Open-air Youth Centre to a History Experience Site - an Unusual Development

Frank Kock (DE)
EXARC Journal Issue 2013/2
Interpretation
Being a Bauspielplatz [adventure playground] usually means that children have a place to meet, play, be creative, get in contact with animals and nature and even do ‘dangerous’ things - with some pedagogical guidance. It is part of local social work, similar to a youth centre...

Public Outreach in the Drents Museum in Assen (NL)

Blue van der Zwan-Deen (NL)
EXARC Journal Issue 2012/2
Interpretation
Part of my job as museum teacher at the Drents Museum in Assen is attending to the all the groups that visit our museum. This includes the great number of children, both elementary school and high school students, that visit our museum. A lot of children think of a museum as a boring place where there is nothing to do but look at old paintings...