Regardless of your study abroad trip’s theme or timeframe, museum visits can be indispensable. A great museum can give students access to the rich, tangible and material heritage of the place they are visiting. But at the same time, with so much to see and experience in any location, it’s important to plan for museum visits to be a rewarding use of time. Otherwise, they may end up taking away precious hours from an itinerary that could have been much better spent elsewhere.
Here are a few things to consider when deciding how to make a museum visit a memorable, significant contribution to your school trip abroad:
What’s the Link Between Location and Learning?
The specific connection between the destination of your study abroad trip and its learning objectives can vary widely. Sometimes, there is a deep significance to a specific site, while other times different sites fit into a larger objective. Consequently, the value of a museum visit will fluctuate based on your learning objectives and, of course, what is on offer at that location.
In larger cities, alongside the mainstay flagship institutions, there is often an abundance of specialized museums.that can bring unique experiences to your itinerary. Smaller towns, however, will usually have a limited set of museums operating in more general or archival ways (i.e. a local history museum, a museum of regional art, etc.).
Consider how the location relates to the subject of your trip. Ask yourself: is there more value spending trip time within the walls of a museum than outside exploring the area itself? If a museum visit brings context to and resonates with the learning happening during the rest of the trip, that’s a great reason to take advantage. Otherwise, a different type of experience – a site visit, workshop, hike, or walking tour – might be a better use of your time.
Pre-Visit Materials Planning
It’s essential to consider how you will structure your students’ time in any museum that you visit. The days of the tick-box, treasure-hunt-style museum worksheet are thankfully behind us. However, materials that promote open-ended, inquiry-led and reflective engagement can add value to student experience in museums.
Provide a set of written questions to students beforehand that encourage engagement with the themes of your trip. This can be an effective tool to help students build connections between what’s within the museum and what is outside of it.
Consider timing as well. Materials and writing exercises that are presented before a museum visit, but completed afterwards, are often best. Students can freely peruse the exhibition, but keep the questions you’ve asked in mind. This can lead to productive conversations and bring students closer to your learning objectives for the trip.
Use Museums to Help Students Connect Ideas Across Subjects
Part of the importance of experiential learning is discovery – being surprised, forming new ideas, and approaching “old” lessons in new ways. As a teacher, one of the most satisfying parts of study abroad trips can be bringing your teaching outside of the classroom.
A well-chosen museum can help you give your students new frameworks to approach ideas they believe they have already fully understood. Museum visits abroad can be a perfect way to reconsider ideas and subjects, when used to create subject-related experiences in unexpected ways.
For example, if you are on a Paris itinerary focused on French politics and history, the Louvre or Versailles may be the first go-to choices. But, you may want to consider a place like the Museum of Hunting and Nature. On the surface, it seems like would be more suited to a biology trip, but in fact it offers a thoughtful exploration of political philosophy and practice. It approaches the topic through the atypical framework of the relationship between humans and animals over the centuries. Students will be thinking – perhaps for the first time – about how dogs, horses, and safari hunts relate to power, and they certainly won’t forget the impressive taxidermy!
Museums that are topic-adjacent can open up larger conversations and deepen themes, providing a sense of wonder and stoking curiosity. In such settings, students can approach a subject with fresh eyes and hopefully make connections that will carry back to the classroom.
