Museums as school : collaborative exhibit survey development for high school teachers

Museums today have made education a top priority in regards to reconsidering their role, their core competencies, and how they can collaborate more effectively with schools to ensure children have a meaningful museum experience. Museum educators in particular understand the importance of museum school partnerships and over the last few decades have focused on ways to create more relevant learning experiences for students. For this study, high school teachers were interviewed to determine categories and items to be included in a museum exhibit development survey. The final survey was reviewed by a cadre of high school teachers based on their understanding on how a museum attains information in order to create exhibits more relevant to student’s classroom studies. The feedback was used to modify the survey to be sent to a broader audience of museum exhibitors. Together, these findings suggest that when teachers work closely with museum exhibition developers on what their st udents are studying in class, the development of museum exhibits can be more effective for museums and schools seeking to form a more significant learning experience for students visiting museums