MUSEums: inspirational learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

MUSEums: inspirational learning

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Recognition (non-formal and informal learning/credits); Creativity and culture; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

MUSEums: Inspirational Learning is an Erasmus + project that wanted to show children that learning is a lifelong process that can be achieved everywhere; museums and out-of-school environments being especially rich resources. Its goal was also for teachers to consider out-of-school learning places in their lesson planning as a fantastic added value. MUSE proved to be much more than that, reaching those goals and outpassing them.

Before the project, bringing students used to be considered as a recreational moment. Thanks to the project teachers from France, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands and Turkey – with different perspectives and habits – have shared methods and have learnt from their meetings with the museum professionals. They have tested different types of activities and planning on their students so that the visits would have a bigger impact as a learning moment as well as open their minds to the world around them. They have experienced that learning not only takes place in a classroom but also in other environments. Most partners have seen their students evolve and become much more curious and self-confident towards their learning and their communication skills improve.

The MUSEums project has impacted the schools of the different partners in a tremendous way. The project reached everyone at the different schools in one way or the other. Each of the 6 mobilities and/or action organised in the course of the project allowed all the teachers of the different schools to take part in the project and to exchange their views on out-of-school learning environments and create activities and analyses that can be used by their colleagues and anyone interested in that topic. But it went further than that.

For instance, the way the students reacted when visiting the various museums ( local and internationally renowned). Some of these students never manage to see the inside of a museum due to a number of economical or social factors. Most schools focused on these kinds of students and got them involved in the project, in order to arouse their interest in museums and their importance in their social and cultural development as European citizens. And to avoid the risk of them never returning to a museum again.

Another factor was the diversity of profiles of the different partners. Each teacher involved directly in the project learned from the experiences of the others, such as students in the Netherlands being more independent in their learning, museums in Sweden having developped a close link with the surrounding schools and being used to work together and the Irish team exchanging on dealing with students with behavioural problems.

The students who were involved directly in the project took part in the organizing, execution, planning and hosting part of the programme, in order to make them feel a certain degree of commitment to the project but they were also the beneficiaries of the different visits and experiences held during the mobilities.at their school. The remaining students in the different schools were involved by making the project visible in school, by using the blog, the media and also a very simple pin-board in the Erasmus + corners or had out-of-school learning activities organised.

This project has opened up the schools’ vision to out-of-school learning activities again. Almost every school takes a field trip on occasion. But this project made us look at these kinds of ‘trips’ from a very different perspective. Such as being critical in which museums are suitable and offer the possibilities where students can be involved and triggered in learning or have them not just walking around with no objective or purpose or also learn how to use your senses to experience a visit and remember what you’ve learnt in a much more efficient way.

A museum visit is now always planned by all the partners as a whole sequence with pre-visit activities, missions during the visits and follow-up activities. It is no longer a recreational day out. It has become a proper part of the learning process for the students and an added value to the teaching process for the teachers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 141270 Eur

Project Coordinator

COLLÈGE COBERGHER & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Didaktus Skolor AB
• clarawood special school
• Colegio Lope De Vega (Treinta Profesores SCA)
• Heinrich-Nordhoff-Gesamtschule
• Yenimahalle Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu
• Roncalli MAVO