How do prospective elementary school teachers evaluate practices in the elective museum education course?: A case study

Abstract

Museum education course has been made available as a course of professional knowledge in faculties of education since 2018 so that prospective teachers can use museums as learning environments and so that they can plan and do learning activities in those places. This paper aims to analyse prospective elementary school teachers' views on the elective museum education course. The study was designed as a case study one of the qualitative research designs. The study group was formed in convenience sampling method. 27 prospective elementary school teachers were included in the study. The research data were collected through the participants' diaries, open-ended survey questions and focal group interviews; and the data were analysed in the descriptive analysis technique. The research results demonstrated that the prospective teachers developed positive perspectives on museums after taking the museum education course. They thought that the course had inculcated in them personal skills and pedagogical skills. Besides, they also stated that they could benefit from museum education activities in creating effective learning environments in the life of teaching.