KA201 MUSEums Inspirational Learning EBOOK

 Our students have volunteered for a lot of different activities and have been
willing to share their experience with the other students at the school. They have
also created activities and testimonies about the different visits and now go and
visit museums on their own or with their families.

 "First of all a lot of students reflected during and after the project that they now
know why they should learn another language.

 Second: our students kept talking about the museum visits afterwards and about
what they learnt and how they liked it. Sometimes they were surprised about what
you can learn in a museum.

 So I think, yes, the project engaged the students."

24. Has your use of Out of School facilities improved the educational experience
for your students? Explain briefly.
 Yes as our children still talk about the Titanic visit. Many of them had never been
to it and had only seen it on the television. The children in Clarawood struggle to
conform to regular classroom and taking them out really enhance their learning.
Many had not been allowed to visit museums in their previous schools.
 Yes it has since they had the opportunity to discover new places for learning
 Yes. The students enjoy this learning methodology.
 Yes, they can remember almost everything of what they learned from the visits
 Not in every visit but it has in those that where connected with our curriculum
 Yes. We asked the students who took part in the visits and who did some out of
school learning activities to share their experiences with their classmates. We
made videos. We can realize without doubts that the experience imroved their
knowledge and their understanding of the lessons done in the classrooms
 Yes, more enthusiasm for getting out school.
 Yes. Our pupils especially need stimulus and practical experiences. Through the
project this became even clearer and gave staff the drive to explore Out of School
facilities to an even greater degree than before.
 Yes, the students who are in this project are more eager to take part in activities
in museum visits.
 Yes, It gives the experience that all courses can be done outside the school.
 Yes, my students are very eager. they had a good experience and were very
impressed.
 Yes, they especially liked the activities out of school.
 Out of School facilities have given my students the opportunity to engage, enjoy
and benefit from range of learning styles. Out of School facilities if planned
correctly and done so with the cooperation of the organisation that you are
planning to visit can give students the best opportunity to learn in a new and
interesting way.
 Yes, beecause the students were educated in an environment outside the school.
They expressed themselves freely. It was a good opportunity for them to receive
training away from the stress of the classroom environment. Abstract information
is embodied.
 Of course. They have a closer and practical vision of purely theoretical concepts.
 I would say yes but it also depends on the visit and the activities provided.

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 Yes, because they were able to apply their school knowledge to an actual
historical sight

 Yes, it has allowed them to become more autonomous and have a reflection on
their educational experiences. They have become more rational.

 Yes, I think so. Because of the museum visits they now can easily imagine the
subjects they learnt about because they got to see them in personal. Also it is a
big difference between reading about something in the classroom and seeing it in
a museum. In the museum you can recognize the size, the smell, fell the age and
the atmosphere. All of this contribute to an integrated educational experience.

25. Do you feel that your participation in the project expanded your awareness of
what being a European citizen means in today's’ society? Explain briefly.
 Absolutely and we also made good connections with other schools
 Yes as it brought people from different parts of Europe together and we forged
excellent links with each other . To me, a fundament aspect of Erasmus
Programme is bringing people together from different cultures so that we can
understand each others culture.
 Absolutely yes
 Yes. This experience has made me feel closer to the way of thinking and working
with other European citizens.
 Yes, of course. Not only teachers but also students were able to exchange a lot of
information with the partners from other countries, and find differences and
similarities between the life in the different countries of Europe, the educational
system, etc.
 Yes, since this project has lasted the enough time to engage with other
participants
 Totally. A European citizen and a European teacher. The project was a fantastic
experience. Sharing methods, educational systems, pedagogical approaches
helped a lot putting everything into, a different light. Questioning my habits as a
teacher was intellectualy very enriching and stimulating. As a teacher and as a
European citizen I experienced first hand what collaboration should be!!
 Yes. It was fascinating to discuss issues with colleagues from different countries,
exploring similarities and differences. More than ever I think it is vital to build,
maintain and use links with our European neighbours.
 Certainly, the people in this project have awareness of European citizens and
looked the world with larger dimension.
 Being a European citizen primarily involves protecting history and respecting
nature and the environment. We have increased our awareness in the
development of environmental awareness .
 Learning and visiting other countries, having new friends and meeting with
colleagues expanded my point of view,
 I feel that the project has given me the opportunity to find out more about what
being a European citizen means. It has given me the chance to meet teachers
from varying cultures and backgrounds, chat to them and share experiences and
strategies that we have used in the classroom. I have also had the chance to
explore and experience new and exciting places and coming home I have been
able to share these with friends and family.

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 Yes of course. With these projects, both students and teachers gain awareness of
European citizenship. With these projects, becoming a European citizen is
strengthened. Countries get close to each other, they know each other.

 This experience has helped me to verify that our students need to know other
countries and cultures that help them to be better citizens of the world .

 Yes, I think so. Our School is an UNESCO Project School and it is very important
for us that our pupil expand an awareness of what being a European Citizen.

 The project was a great opportunity to meet teachers from different countries. The
international and intercultural exchange is very important, not only as a foreign
languages teacher. That this is possible and without difficulties (e.g. traveling)
contributed to my awareness of what being a European citizen means.

 It did not, because of my previous experiences in this field
 Yes, it has certainly given me a better insight on the education and society in

other European countries. We need to know each other to understand better the
issues of the different countries that make the European community.
 "Yes, it did, because I learnt that there are so many similarities regarding thoughts
and visions about teaching although we are inhabitants of so many different
countries.
 In addition I experienced that there are still some differences between our
cultures which we had to accept but also could learn from. :)"
 Yes, it provided a unique insight into the countries visited and also their culture
and history

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4.- Conclusions

4.1 France

Introduction

Taking part in those two years of the MUSE project was extremely enriching for the
team of teachers and students who got involved, and even for the school in general. Though
it developed a lot of skills amongst the participants, it also revealed factors that should be
tackled in order to improve the quality and efficiency of out-of-school activities.

Personal challenges.

Thanks to the mobilities and the exchanges with our partners, we have quickly come to
realize all European countries are not equal as far as out-of-school activities are concerned.
For instance, going to a museum is often for free in Sweden because museum visits are
considered as being part of education. Even workshops at internationally renowned
museums, such as the Vasa museum, are free for Swedish students.

Nations such as the Netherlands and Sweden provide a tablet for each student allowing
them to enhance the personal aspect of the experience of the visit as a whole. Preparing the
visit with some personal research, taking notes, photos and videos during the visit and
exploiting them in follow-up activities. Having no mobile devices for students and teachers at
our school, and having to pay for visits and transportation with general budgets that are cut
down year after year make the organisation of out-of-school activities even more challenging.
And that is at an organizational level only. Fortunately, pedagogical advantages are so
numerous that it is absolutely worth fighting for students to be part of many varied out-of-
school learning activities.

Even though the first months of the project at school were rather difficult, with a new principal
and a new accountant who were afraid of how difficult such a program would be to be
managed at our very small school, it nevertheless very quickly developed positively. A third
of all the school teachers ended up taking part in the Erasmus + club that took place once a
week for the two years of the project. All of them actively took part in the mobilities. And
though we were at first criticized for including 14 pupils only in the mobilities out of the 280
students of our school, the staff and parents finally realized that the impacts were multiple on
all the school and that each single pupil got new opportunities of learning outside school
during the programme.

Even if we are certain that the challenge was successfully fulfilled, we know that we still have
to fight against some preconceived ideas and try to convince some people that:
> out-of-school visits are not rewards
> during out-of-school activities students are learning and not tourists
> cultural opening shouldn’t be the opportunity only a few get
> out-of-school activities are a real challenge to organize in the French system as budgets
are always getting lower while paperwork requirements higher. But solutions exist and the
added value to your teaching skills and the added value to our students learning process are
worth every single problem you have to fight.

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How the project changed our perspective of out-of-school education. Discovering
MUSEums.

At the beginning of this two-year-project, we were convinced there was much more to
learning activities than the usual and sometimes boring questionnaires. Discovering,
experimenting, creating new types of activities was extremely motivating for us. Realizing
how the experience of the visit in itself, with all our senses, was also enlightening. Feeling in
order to remember better came to be a crucial notion while creating the activities. Getting the
chance to experiment many types of learning environments opened our horizons as
teachers. Art museums, built heritage monuments, historical places, natural parks, science
centers, planetariums, cities all add value to each pupil’s curriculum allowing them to
experience first hand, see in reality, and thus understand better points of their programs.

We also realized that teamwork is essential. A visit seems to be more efficient when it allows
pupils to make links between different school subjects. For practical reasons, an out-of-
school activity is often planned by one or two teachers depending on how motivated they
are. However, it is important for an out-of-school visit to be efficient that it is planned by
teachers from different subjects together. A unilateral approach is not as fruitful as a multiple
one. Each subject, with its own angle and perspective, adds to the learning experience.

What have we learned from this project?
Even if students should have some time when they can enjoy the visit “freely” for them to
fully feel and experiment, the project has nevertheless shown that it is crucial for the
students, to actually learn and remember things, to have them be actors of the visits. Being
spectators is not enough. Reading panels or listening to a guide is part of the learning
process but should only be the first step. Teachers, prior to a visit, should elicit precisely
what the students mission(s) will be. Allowing students to embrace the place fully,
understand what is at stake, and still specifically have goals to reach should be the spectrum
of what an out-of-school activity should integrate.

For a visit to be legitimate in the curriculum, it is important that teachers include it in a
sequence and conceive it as a three-phase-learning process. The visit should be prepared
for the students to understand why the visit is organized. The continuity in the learning
process should be obvious. Phase 2 should be the actual visit with its activities, and the final
part, often quite difficult for the students, should be a time to reflect with the help of follow-up
activities.

Thanks to MUSE, and the exchanges of practices with our European partners, we have
discovered a wide variety of options as far as follow-up activities are concerned. We have
listed them and organized a toolbox for teachers.The toolbox consists of cards which
represent types of activities that you can plan depending on the types of visits and on the
moment of the learning process you are at (before, during or after the visit). It also contains
the duration and equipment needed for each activity.

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Thought about participants:

The selection of museums and out-of-school learning environments during the mobilities was
absolutely great, qualitatively. Having the chance to take part in such high quality visits and
educatively rich discussions was really appreciated by teachers and students alike. For most
of our French pupils, discovering that museums can be modern, interactive, and fun was a
first. As teachers, we really enjoyed seeing our students not wanting to leave a museum
because it was “so interesting”. Seeing them actively taking part in visits and discovering or
revealing aspects of themselves unexplored before was motivating. Defining the type of artist
they would be in Rotterdam modern art museum, seeing the stairs behind the bookshelves
with terror in their eyes at Anne Frank’s House, being flabbergasted in front of the mix of
Christian and Muslim art in the Mosque of Cordoba were experiences that can’t even be
touched in school books.

The communication amongst the partners was really positive. It is even sad to think that the
project is over. But it is only over as far as the program is concerned. Links that were created
during those two years of working together will not break because we reach August 2019.
Thanks to the multiple discussions we have had over and between the mobilities, we have
discovered other points of common interests and questioning.

As European teachers, the project was really fruitful. Discovering other educational systems,
different pedagogical habits, helped us rethink some aspects of our practices. Evolving at a
larger scale is stimulating and makes us even more efficient at our local level. Being and
feeling part of a bigger thing, adding the European dimension as a citizen is positive for
adults and maybe even more for students who represent more opened future generations.

4.2 Sweden

What have we learned from this project?

● Museums are valuable but undervalued activities in school.
● We are so fortunate to have some many museums around.
● It s good to have a guide but not to long time, maybe 40-50 minutes and then give

students tasks to do/ complete.
● To make it a real learning situation it takes some planning, like visit the museum first,

talk and inform the guide, trying to find ways to include our senses in the visit
(important). See, hear, doing.
● This can also be used in ordinary learning situations, like classroom activities.
● It s good to make and keep contacts with the pedagogs at different museums. Good
to come back year after year with new students.
● Kinesthetic (practical) learning is much better than just reading or hearing about it.

How can we make this project sustainable for the future?

● We can become good raw models for other colleagues by really using and talking
about our museum visits.

● We can continue to publish material about our museum visits on Instagram under
hashtag #ERASmuse.

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● Talk more about the project purpose. It s much more then just travelling to different
countries.

How have we changed our approach to lesson plans?

● Including the senses (always)
● Don't underestimate the pedagogs at the museums. Ask them specifically about

something you work within the classroom. Christina's example of human relations
from an animal perspective.

Thought about participants:

● We decided to have /strive for to have the same participants on all mobilities. For us it
was good with continuity.

● There are both pros and cons of keeping the same participants on all mobilities.
● Two teachers as a base and then a new teacher invited for each mobility.
● The extra teacher can be chosen out of some criterias for the upcoming mobility.

maybe an art teacher if you re going to France looking at art museums. And a
Science teacher if there will be a science museum visit.
● For our own mobility it s good to invite different teachers that can be like an extra
guide for the visit we will make. Like Stefan showing the ABBA museum.
● It would have been good to have a mixture of participants from different countries. On
this have we been the only school with upper secondary students. Perfect would
have been to have:

❖ Teachers for primary school (two countries).
❖ Teachers for lover secondary (two countries).
❖ Teachers for upper secondary (two countries).
● We find it good to that there are three mobilities with students and three without
students. We could use our own school students more during the mobilities without
following students.

4.3 Germany

What are the benefits? / How sustainable is the project?

We gained an insight into different cultures and school systems.

Also, it was interesting to see how other countries work with museums or out-of-school-
learning environments. Moreover, exchanging experiences with colleagues is one of the
most important benefits of the project. Gathering ideas on how to create lesson plans and to
think of possible, motivating methods to improve the quality of museum visits and make them
a meaningful experience for every student is another essential aspect.

The students also greatly benefited from the project. Since it is of growing importance to
educate them as European citizens and to encourage them in that role, the intercultural
encounter was very important for them. They met and worked with students and teachers
from other European countries, used English in an out-of-school-situation and gained self-
confidence in using English (and also French and Spanish) and they found out how
important it is to learn another language.

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How did it change our perspective?

We already have museum visits included in our curriculum (in different subjects) but the
project had a big impact on how we perceive them and use them for different classes.

The experience of organizing and evaluating museum visits has encouraged us to visit
museums even more often or rather with a higher aspiration of how they should be organized
in the future because there is more awareness of the importance of out-of-school learning
environments in general and how they can be organized to make them more profitable for
our students. All in all, it is clearer and more obvious to us which elements are important for
students to make a museum visit beneficial and sustainable.

Organisation: What was good? What would we change?

We did not change our team but had three people always involved in the project and one
colleague (member of the headmaster´s team) supporting us in school.

One of us went to all the meetings and the other two went to three / four meetings. The
advantage of this was that we were always on the same level in terms of information or the
to-do-list. Next to the meetings we met at school to get some work done but we did not have
a regular lesson or time slot where we could meet.

A disadvantage was that we could not involve more colleagues and it was hard to inform the
other members of staff about our project and what we worked on although we had the
Erasmus+ corner, regular up-dates on our school´s homepage and presentations, e.g.
teacher meetings or open day.

We did not have a club to work with the students so it was difficult to involve them regularly
in the project or keep them involved. To work with the students, we always had to take them
out of their lessons. Positive about this was that our colleagues always supported us and
never had a problem with that. The students were very happy and thankful about taking part
in the exchanges and some of them are still in touch with their exchange partners.

4.4 Northern Ireland

We have achieved the following results from our Erasmus Project on “MUSEums:
inspirational learning”:

● Using museums as a tool to empower children’s learning especially children
disconnected not only with education but society as well.

● To enhance staff morale in the school especially when staff deal with children who
have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

● To disseminate good practice from our school to our European partners and vice
versa.

● Creating a natural learning atmosphere, creating an environment where students can
express themselves freely.

● Providing alternative teaching methods to teachers.
● Creating positive educational environments that enhance children’s learning.
● Contributing to the success of students and sharing the success in a positive way by

using Museums as a learning platform for them.

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● Improving the quality of teaching and learning
● Increasing permanence in education
● Ensuring a better education for students.
● To disseminate the project amongst staff and pupils as part of my Performance

Review and Staff Development.
● Expanding the perspectives of existing teachers and helping their professional

development.

Participants:
All 20 members of the teaching staff have been involved in the project and 4
members of staff have been on the various trips to our project countries:
Michael Guinness (Erasmus Coordinator) visited France 2018 and Germany 2018
Gerry Kelly (Assistant Erasmus Co-ordinator) visited France and Sweden 2018 +
2019
Jill Heron (former Vice principal) visited Germany 2018
Julie Handley visited Germany 2018
Michael Guinness, Nicola Monteith and Joanne Whyte (principal) to visit Seville 2019
Gerry Kelly, Drew Bradley (Vice principal) and Jonny Trimble Sweden 2019
In all 8 members of staff were involved in the trips.
I have liaised very closely with them in order that they are kept up to date with the
project and G Kelly has been very closely involved in it.

4.5 Turkey

Effect of the project

● Out of school learning environments increased the importance in the curriculum.
● Teachers organized visit museum more than before. And the students wanted to visit

the museums with parents.
● The plans were used by the teachers. After the visiting the museum each teachers

evaluated the museum with students.
● Corner of the museum in the school was created with museum brochures by

teachers. The students examined the brochures of the museums and they had the
new details about the museums. We thought that it affected positively the success of
the students.
● We learned to organize the visiting museum in the school was very important and
there should be a responsible in the school to organize the visiting the museum. In
Turkey each teacher organizes and plans own visiting the museum for students.

Sustainability

● A course about museum education can be organized by the parner to teachers.
● Science, social, art, history, geography... all branches teachers can use the lesson

plans for own lesson.
● A report can be prepared by partner to present own local authority for using lesson

plans in the curriculum.

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● The conferences can be organized for using museums like a learning material and
creating a lesson plan for visiting the museums.

● Project student club can be created by each partner after the project has finished to
present the project aims, details to new students and other students.

● Teachers can write an article about experience of the project (lesson plans, museums
visited by them in own country).

● Website can be on the publication after the project time has finished.
● E book can be shared by Turkish partner to EBA(National Education System

Network).

Participants

● We were not project partners as a school. So this situation was a disadvantage for
us. For this reason, we chose some of different schools. We wanted the project to be
implemented in different environments. It was a little difficult. It would be better to
work in a school. Teachers who joined the mobility have changed the school.
However, the project participants have experience as we apply the similar project in
our district.

● English teachers and teachers who applied the project were selected. Students were
selected from two different schools, the project was studied in two different schools.
Our students were active and enthusiastic about mobility. They shared their
experience with the other students in the schools.

4.6 Netherlands

The MUSEums Project fitted right into the vision of our school. We try to equip our students
with as much experience as possible. From cultural activities to project about global
citizenship. But teachers are often forgotten. It is important that our teachers also get the
necessary exposure to other experiences in order to further develop their teaching skills.

A lot of factors contributed to the cutback in out of school learning activities at our school
over the years. Factors like safety, technology, but also cutbacks, and organizational
changes, contributed to the demise of these visits. But thanks to this project we got the
chance to dive again in the field and really see the importance of these visits being and
remaining an integral part of our school curriculum.

The project gave us as Dutch teachers the opportunity to take a look in the kitchen of our
fellow European schools. It opened a floodgate of information, but also highlighted our
strengths for us. Cooperating, visiting and exchanging students between the schools,
enabled us to share our experiences and also test our project and our assumptions.

From the first visit to the French city of Bergues, it became pretty clear for us, that we
needed more of these activities in the group. It’s a pity that museums invest a lot in creating
educational material and programmes for schools, and that schools don’t often make use of
them. We experienced beautiful expositions, adventurous learning moments and emotional
rollercoasters. And we felt compelled to have our students experience them too.

Every mobility provided the chance for us to learn more about our schools and compare our
educational systems. The pedagogical skills of every country is someway unique, and it

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broadens your horizon as teachers. For instance how Swedish teachers don’t have
mentorships, but that the government facilitates mentors who are in charge of the careers of
the students. This is a huge difference compared to what we are used to in The Netherlands.

One of the strong suits of the project are the materials we are producing. This will guarantee
an afterlife of the project, even for the teachers that not directly participate. The magazine
and eBook for instance, will reach teachers, students and their parents informing them about
our endeavours and findings. Our project can play a big role in influencing teachers to get
out of their classroom again and go into museums with their students.

As a secondary school, we are always trying to keep our curriculum attractive for prospective
students, but mainly for our current students. The international team saw the added value of
the project when the students got to test out the different pedagogical approaches during the
various museum visits. But also our own experiences and reflections on the visits.

This motivated and inspired us to consider making museum visits or out of school learning
environments an integral part of our school curriculum. We are going to present this plan to
our management in order to incorporate out of school learning activities mandatory at our
school. There are endless possibilities to make use of these activities to enrich the
curriculum, and it’s a pity that they don’t get used enough, except by a few subjects like arts
and culture, international class and biology.

The project definitely challenged our organization in it’s whole. From getting used to manage
finances, to working everything in our school schedule. We have never taken part in an
Erasmus+ programme before, so there was a lot of learning to be done. We were also the
first C-activity hosting school, so there was no sample plan laying around to copy, so we had
to start from scratch. Also another learning experience.

In our experience we do have a few things we would like to do better next time. For instance
establishing a steady group that carries out the project. Due to sick colleagues and
understaffing, we often relied on teachers that don’t actively participate in the project as
chaperones. Instead we should have a core team that rotates between the meetings and
activities to guarantee tasks being completed and overall continuity of the project.

On the other hand, having a small steady group also makes the project vulnerable to
external and internal factors like personnel changes and sick leave. Plus it is always a
certain teacher that has to incorporate this into his or her schedule, so it would be unfair to
this teacher.

We had a positive experience using the Google Drive. Everything was easily documented
and stored. It was very transparent and clear. The tasks at hand could also be supervised by
the partner in charge.

All factors considered, we can conclude that we can look back on a fantastic two-year
collaboration between the partner schools. Resulting in permanent partnerships that already
started during the project and that will continue after the project. Furthermore, as the most
important factor, establishing the out-of-school learning activities back in school. Realizing
the importance of the experience of the students and teachers compared to reading about it
or watching it all online. These activities should form an integral part of the curriculum.

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4.7 Spain

What we have learned?
Not only has the project allowed us to gain insight into varied educational systems, but
different cultures with interesting approaches to education. Moving on to practical issues, the
project has given us ideas about how to put into practice out-of-school activities as a learning
tool.
In addition to this, the continuous feedback carried out in the mobilities has given us the
chance to improve the project itself.

How far may the project continue? Sustainability
In case of going on, the project would benefit other participants from other countries, since
the out-of-school activities methodology can improve any educational approach.
The Spanish team has considered that the project could also be applied in national terms,
that is to say, schools from the same country could participate in the same project.

How has it changed our approach to lesson plans?
Inspirational learning can be easily applied in our classroom even from different points of
view.
We were inspired to create new activities for our lessons, but we have found the problem
that not every museum is valid and not all these great ideas are a realistic way of learning
because of the limitations in our school system (museums, materials, time...) Something to
be kept in mind is that the association between the national curriculum and the out-of-school
activities is key to keep the students engaged in the latter.

Would you change something?
The Spanish team has agreed that it would be more adequate that two of the three teachers
assumed the mentor role in order to develop the project from the beginning to the end.
However, one extra teacher should change in each mobility so that professionals from
different fields can acquire new methodologies and implement them in the school.
Regarding students, we should provide them with the same opportunities, therefore, different
students from different ages should take part in the project.

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