1. science museum
history
museum
CONSTRUCTIVISM
MUSEUM EDUCATION THEORY
SQUARE PEGS IN ROUND HOLES:
Why Constructivist Learning Theory doesn’t
work in history museums Louise Zarmati
Deakin University

2. learning journey
My perspective as a researcher informed by my
experience as a
• History teacher
• Archaeologist
• Museum educator
• History educator

3. research questions
1. Methods of museum educators to teach history - educators
2. Museum methods versus classroom history method - observations
3. History teachers’ perspectives of effectiveness - teachers

4. literature review
Previous studies have been on:
•Science, not history
•Primary, not secondary
•Informal, not formal
•Learning, not teaching

5. What is
Constructivist Learning Theory?

6. the learner
Reaction against behaviourism – ‘empty vessel’

7. Context of Constructivist Learning Theory
Late 1980s – 1990s
• postmodernism
• New Museology
• post-colonialism – subaltern theory
• democratisation - ‘history from below’
• Marxism – feminism
• multiculturalism in Hawke-era Australia - 1987

8. Theoretical discourse:
antithetical perspectives
Constructivism versus Behaviourism
Visitor versus Educator
Learning versus Teaching
Active versus Didactic
FOCUS ON THE LEARNER AND LEARNING

9. museum education theory
history
museum

10. Historical Thinking – Historical Inquiry Method

11. What is pedagogy?
Knowledge
PEDAGOGY
Learner Communicator
David Lusted, 1986, 'Why pedagogy?', Screen, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 2-16.

12. Historical Inquiry Method
Historical Thinking
1. Ask historical questions
2. Locate and interrogate primary sources
3. Detect bias, causation, continuity and change,
perspective, interpretation
4. Develop an argument
5. Communicate findings

13. Role of museum educator
The learner The educator

14. multiple interpretations
Subversion?

15. Bells Forge Gorge display, 2006, National Museum of Australia
http://www.nma.gov.au/education/school_resources/
Cycladic figurine

16. Why CLT doesn’t work in history museums
1. Artefacts need temporal and geographical
contextualisation – terms and concepts explained to
beginning learners
2. Holistic, pedagogical approach needed
3. Evaluation of learning should also evaluate quality of
teaching
4. Focus on learner can lead to educator being edited out
Learning in museums not just about the learner

17. Study of eight museums
 Museum of Sydney
 Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney
 Museum of Australian Democracy, Canberra
 National Museum of Australia, Canberra
 Melbourne Museum
 Immigration Museum, Melbourne
 Sovereign Hill, Ballarat
 Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasmania

18. Where to now?
1. Shift from learning to pedagogy
2. Put educator back in the picture
3. Use H.I.M and historical thinking
4. Expert educators design and deliver programs
5. History museum educators engage in
theoretical discourse