An exploratory study on developing an effective collaboration between museums and senior high schools in Ningbo, China to improve students’ learning

Abstract

Museums have been paid increasing attention to for their instructional value in China. This thesis explores the learning experience of senior high school students under the museum-school collaboration (MSC) in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, China. The exploratory study presents findings from action research which established a MSC programme, and reports on what the students, the teachers, and the museum educators thought of what students learned. Semi-structured interviews, observation, photography, and audio-visual recording were conducted with fifteen student participants.
Drawing on Falk and Dierking’s Contextual Model of Learning (CML), the qualitative analysis shows the experience helps students’ history learning and promotes their learning to learn, facilitates the implementation of curriculum reform and the development of future citizens, and proves that the Equal Complementary Model fits the collaboration between museums and senior high schools. There are differences and difficulties that MSC is likely to encounter. Goals, communication, and mutual benefit are imperative for meaningful and successful partnership.
The findings suggest that (1) It is crucial to fully exploit MS advantages and embrace a human-centric approach; (2) Schools should be strongly supported to collaborate with museums; (3) MSC demands more training and guidance; (4) Regarding course design, teachers and museum educators should find ways to listen to students; (5) Assessment is necessary, though the measurement of MSC is hard to reach; (6) There could be diversified forms of MSC; (7) P and E Office should adopt a more collaborative mindset; (8) The support mechanism could be further improved.

Date of Award	Nov 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Nottingham
Supervisor	Geoff Hall (Supervisor) & Anwei Feng (Supervisor)