Museum education

One strand of Renaissance is to create a comprehensive education and learning service available to every school age child. Over £12 million pounds of funding was allocated to support each regional museums hub service to develop and deliver an education programme delivery plan. The plans outline how museums will work with schools in their region to support delivery of the school curriculum and to begin to provide a comprehensive service to schools.

Results

Research into the impact of hub education work has been undertaken by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester. The research was first completed in 2003 and then again in 2005. The research was called ‘What did you learn at the museum today?’

What did you learn at the museum today? Second study

This second study was an evaluation of the outcomes and impact of learning through the implementation of the Education Programme Delivery Plans across the nine Renaissance hubs in 2005. It was the second large scale study into the impact of learning for school age children as a result of visiting museums. The study analysed data from 1,594 school visits to 69 museums by 835 schools in September and October 2005 and compared the results with the earlier 2003 study. For the 2005 report 1,643 teachers responded to a questionnaire with a further 31 interviewed in-depth as part of focus groups. 26,791 children completed questionnaires relating to their experiences of museum visits.

The key findings were impressive:

• The number of contacts with school age children in the 69 museums involved in the survey has increased by 40% between 2003-2005;
• Museums are working with disproportionately high numbers of special schools and with schools located in areas of high social deprivation;
• Teachers remain highly enthusiastic about museums and their potential to support learning;
• Teachers have increased their use of museums for cross curricular work; and
• Pupils experience a high level of enjoyment and inspiration from visiting museums and most say they have learnt interesting, new things.

What did you learn at the museum today? (2nd Study) Executive Summary (PDF 2.17MB)

The full report is available below. Because it is a large document, it has been broken down into four sections.

What did you learn at the museum today? (2nd Study) Full Report Part One (PDF 3.83MB) 
What did you learn at the museum today? (2nd Study) Full Report Part Two (PDF 3MB) 
What did you learn at the museum today? (2nd Study) Full Report Part Three (PDF 3.4MB)
What did you learn at the museum today? (2nd Study) Full Report Part Four (PDF 1.76MB)

Key Stage Two Flipbook (PDF 2.65MB)
Key Stage Three Flipbook (PDF 1.68MB)

What did you learn at the museum today? First study

This report describes the outcomes and impact of the Renaissance education programmes delivered by the 36 museums in the Phase 1 Hubs between the beginning of August and the end of October 2003. It shows an impressive increase of 28% in school visits to museums as a result of this investment, and how a high number of these schools are located in some of the most deprived wards in England.

What did you learn at the museum today (1st Study) Full Report (PDF 4.86MB)