Author: Irena Sertic
In the situation where the proposed educational reforms are unrelated to the problems facing the EU/global community, new ideas about culture and society and new initiatives can challenge museums and other cultural institutions to rethink their purpose, to account for their performance and to redesign their pedagogical practice toward conceptual change and positive future. In this context, it is very important to discuss the role that cultural education has in society, especially in creating, generating and distributing knowledge and possible approaches to new learning economies based on diverse methods of sharing and using cultural educational resources.
According to Hawkey, learning „is a process of active engagement with experience. It is what people do when they want to make sense of the world. It may involve the development or deepening of skills, knowledge, understanding, awareness, values, ideas and feelings, increase in the capacity to reflect. Effective learning leads to change, development, and the desire to learn more.” 1
The question is: can we make museums effective learning environments and sites for alternative production of knowledge that challenge the traditional forms of knowledge?
And how the educational and cultural institutions can work together to integrate educational assets and make conceptual change in learning?
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1 Campaign for Learning in Museums & Galleries, in Learning with Digital Technologies in Museums, Science Centres and Galleries,quoted by Roy Hawkey (2004)