Examining Elementary Social Studies Preservice Teachers’ Dispositional Thinking about Museum Pedagogy

Abstract

Evidence is limited on how elementary social studies preservice teachers make sense of museum settings and the use of museum artifacts for instruction, especially while consumed with learning how to teach. This study explored 81 elementary preservice teachers’ dispositional thinking toward museum pedagogy in a teacher education program. Objectives were to determine an overall dispositional thinking profile and also investigate possible distinct dimensions. The study employed descriptive and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to establish systematically reliable factor solutions representing a profile of preservice teachers’ dispositions. Results indicate preservice teachers’ museum pedagogy dispositional thinking can be measured with three dimensions and one overall generic form of dispositional thinking. Representing the dimensions are these factor structures: (a) willingness to use museum settings and their artifacts to support social studies teaching, (b) capacity to interact with museum artifacts for K-6 social studies teaching, and (c) recognizing the prospect of museum pedagogy as an approach to enhance K-6 social studies education. Based on the factor structures, we introduce a conceptual framework to represent elementary social studies preservice teachers’ dispositional thinking about museum pedagogy. Engaging in preliminary work to first understand preservice teachers’ thoughts and dispositions, before creating or adopting curricula, may deepen and strengthen their agentic growth in museum education for social studies teaching.

Instructing students in history museums: A systematic literature review

“…First, they stated to lack specific knowledge of and tools for developing instructional practices themselves, resulting from a general lack of training in museum education (Felices-De la Fuente et al, 2021;Görmez, 2020;Uslu, 2020). Resulting from this, PSTs self-assessed their capacities to provide instruction in a museum much lower than their willingness or motivation to visit museums with students (Hubbard & Odebiyi, 2021). Second, PSTs' experiences during their own time as students, being mostly exposed to guided tours when visiting museums, played a considerable role (Felices-De la Fuente et al, 2021).…”

“…Thematically, questionnaires focused on why PSTs would visit history museums with students, what their personal stances towards museum education were and in which way they would incorporate museum visits into the curriculum. Hubbard and Odebiyi (2021) for example aimed to map PSTs dispositional thinking profile towards museum education through an explanatory factor analysis based on a questionnaire. This included their willingness and motivation, their self-perceived capacity and their instructional prospects to incorporate museum visits in social studies lessons.…”

“…These would enable students to approach objects as historical sources and a museum as an institution telling a story supported by these objects. Also in contrast, PSTs did not really consider cognitive learning regarding their beliefs on history museum instruction, but rather focused on the affective value of museum visits (Hubbard & Odebiyi, 2021).…”

Museum visit intervention in K-12 education: a scoping review

“…One recent study revealed that museum visits benefit prospective teachers and students from various dimensions [12]. One of the dimensions to foster meaningful museum teaching is through museum pedagogy [13]. A visit to a museum during a teachertraining program can create awareness of museum visits as a pedagogy among trainee teachers [14].…”

The Effect of STEM Application on Learning History and Culture based on Photo-Documents in Museums

“…Using primary sources requires important research and critical thinking skills, unlike working with other teaching materials. Museums, which adopt the understanding of contemporary museology, establish museum-school cooperation and establish education departments that will program the education to be carried out by communicating with the society and schools (Hubbard & Odebiyi, 2021). According to the modern understanding of education, the museum a) forces people to think, establishes relationships by making observations, b) teaches people how to improve their knowledge, c) gives them the habit of comparing this information, d) shows the opposites and brings them to a conclusion with a certain interpretation, e) contributes to the formation and development of imagination and sense of taste, observation, creativity and logic, f) reveals the past, compares the past with the present, shows the developments up to the present day, g)…”