Beyond the classroom: Museum visits and resources

Museums are perhaps the ultimate multimodal classroom, where students have the opportunity to engage through multiple modes with authentic and/or original objects, records, artworks and other content related to their studies. Museums are also notoriously enthusiastic adopters of the latest technologies, from audios and apps to virtual and augmented reality. For many students and teachers, museum visits can offer unprecedented opportunities to learn about and through different modalities. This chapter provides a brief overview of the research into student learning in museums, and of multimodal research concerning museums, as informed by a Systemic Functional framework. In doing so, it argues that, while museum programmes are overwhelmingly seen as worthwhile, enjoyable and memorable experiences by both teachers and students, the experiences themselves remain somewhat of a black box, highlighting a productive and valuable space for future research