Museum-Based Learning in Bucharest

Description

One thing is for sure: museum visits are inspiring and engaging. However, they do not automatically become learning.

The real challenge is knowing how to design activities that help learners observe, ask questions, make connections, and reflect critically.

For this reason, many educators find it challenging to make historical, cultural, and contemporary themes feel relevant to learners.

At the same time, the need for innovative, engaging, and context-based learning in education is growing, and museums offer a unique setting to give life to interactive learning experiences and enhance cross-cultural understanding.

Drawing from the cultural richness of the city of Bucharest, this course explores how museums can be used as dynamic learning environments to foster experiential, interdisciplinary, and inclusive education.

Participants will learn how to connect museum narratives, artefacts, and exhibitions to curriculum goals and different learners’ needs, integrating both formal and non-formal educational approaches.

Participants will explore different types of museums and heritage sites and experiment with practical methods to guide observation, support inquiry, and help learners make connections between what they see and what they study.

Throughout the course, they will take part in guided visits, workshops and collaborative design sessions, discussing different formats and tools to be used (before, during, and after a visit), and they’ll gain strategies to promote approaches such as place-based-learning, gamified tasks and art-based activities, as well as digital tools that can support engagement without losing focus from the real cultural experience.

Exploring the educational potential of different museums in Bucharest, from art institutions to the National Village Museum, participants will have the chance to reflect on how museum learning can foster historical awareness, cultural understanding, and student engagement in ways that remain realistic and transferable.

Continuous assessment, peer feedback, and a final project will then ensure that they can apply learning outcomes effectively, bridging the gap between theory and classroom practice.

By the end of the course, participants will leave with practical strategies, adaptable activity designs, and classroom-ready tools to develop and implement museum-based educational activities to make museum learning more active, interdisciplinary, and transferable to their own educational context (and across diverse audiences).

Concept by Anita Sterea

Learning outcomes

The course will help participants to:

• Design museum-based learning activities that support inquiry, dialogue, and reflection;
• Integrate cultural and historical content into their teaching;
• Use creative and experiential methods to explore cultural, historical, and contemporary themes;
• Design educational tools and learning scenarios to enhance museum learning (before, during, and after);
• Use simple digital tools to support engagement (e.g., mapping, QR tasks, interactive prompts);
• Adapt project-based learning and interdisciplinary methods to suit their teaching contexts;
• Facilitate inclusive museum learning experiences, considering accessibility and diverse learners;
• Adapt project-based learning and interdisciplinary methods to suit their teaching contexts;
• Demonstrate the application of experiential learning principles within diverse museum settings, using Bucharest museums as spaces for critical thinking and reflection.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to course and museum-based learning

• Introduction to the trainers, the host school/organization, and the week’s external activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools/organizations;
• Icebreaker activities;
• Identification of the participants’ expectations, needs, and goals for the course;
• Introduction to the course structure and weekly activities;
• Museum typologies and learning opportunities;
• Introduction to educational digital tools for museum learning;
• Overview of Bucharest museums and the week’s learning pathway.

Day 2 – Museum learning and scenario development

• Visit to the Museum of Records (Muzeul Recordurilor Românești);
• Guided observation: interpretation, storytelling, and unconventional museum narratives.

The session will include:

• A guided museum visit centered on observation and interpretation;
• Group discussions to analyze the educational potential of the exhibits;
• Collaborative refinement of learning scenarios, connecting museum content to experiential learning principles and curriculum needs;
• Reflection on how non-traditional museums can support critical thinking, creativity, and engagement.

Day 3 – Outdoor museum learning, gamification, and art-based education

• Visit to the Village Museum (Muzeul Satului) and the Theodor Aman Museum;
• Gamified treasure hunt at the Village Museum (observation, inquiry, collaboration);
• Visit to the Theodor Aman Museum and art-based learning activities (visual literacy, interpretation, and reflective dialogue).

The session will include:

• A guided exploration of outdoor and indoor museum learning environments;
• Design of experiential learning activities applicable to open-air museums, art museums, and heritage sites;
• Use of ICT tools (digital mapping, mobile apps, QR codes, interactive tasks) to enhance engagement;
• Reflection on learning outcomes, transferability to participants’ own educational contexts, and best practices in museum- and art-based education.

Day 4 – Communist heritage, history, and democratic values

• Activity 1: Communist-Era Tour of Bucharest
  • Guided tour focused on Bucharest’s urban landscape and architecture from the communist period (recent history, memory, and ideology);
  • Reflection on totalitarianism, propaganda, and everyday life under communism.
• Activity 2: National Museum of Romanian History
  • Guided visit to the National Museum of Romanian History;
  • Discussion: how museums and public spaces represent sensitive and contested pasts;
  • Facilitated reflection on citizenship, democratic values, human rights, and historical interpretation.

Day 5 – From museum experience to classroom practice

• Brainstorming: how to integrate museums and heritage into teaching;
• Designing final learning activities and project ideas;
• Final presentations and peer feedback;
• Work on final projects and presentations;
• Traditional lunch and discussion on gastronomical traditions as cultural heritage.

Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities

• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
• Excursion and other external cultural activities.

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