Design, implementation and evaluation of innovative science teaching strategies for non-formal learning in a natural history museum

Background: Museums are useful educational resources in science teaching. Teaching strategies which promote hands-on activities, student-centred learning, and rich social interaction must be designed and implemented throughout the museum visit for effective science learning.Purpose: This study aimed to design and implement innovative teaching strategies for effective science learning from visits to natural history museums and to evaluate these teaching strategies based on feedback from pre-service elementary teachers.Description of the museum visit: A natural history museum visit was designed and implemented in three stages: pre-visit preparations, teaching strategies during the visit and activities after the visit as follow-up learning. The most important characteristic of learning from museum experiences in this study was the teaching strategies implemented during the visit. First, the pre-service teachers completed the worksheets during their museum visit. Next, they performed visual arts activities and produced visual arts products while considering science concepts.Sample: 118 pre-service elementary teachers in Turkey participated in this study.Design and methods: The study examined the pre-service elementary teachers’ views on teaching strategies designed for learning from the museum visit through an open-ended questionnaire. Thematic content analysis was used for data analysis.Results: The results indicated that pre-service elementary teachers generally had positive views on their exposure to the teaching strategies. Also, they stated that the teaching strategies could make various contributions to their professional development.Conclusions: We believe that the pre-visit activities can promote meaningful learning during the museum visit. The teaching strategies which combined worksheets and visual art activities can be good teaching tools for turning museums into learning environments that promote learner-centred learning and hands-on activities. Follow-up activities can also promote transfer of learning in the museum. In addition, this study makes contributions to pre-service elementary teachers’ professional development about effective non-formal science learning in museums.