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First Step into Dutch History:
about the Implementation of a 'Kleutercanon'
in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum
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Master thesis Museum Studies
July 2014
Clémence de Heij
10438254
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First tutor: Dr. M.H.E. Hoijtink
Second tutor: Prof. Dr. A.A.M de Jong
Abstract
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The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum located in Arnhem received from the Dutch government the mission to introduce all its visitors to the canon of Dutch history. Since 2013, the presentation of the topics of the canon officially started in the museum park. From now on, this presentation is addressed to adults and children from age 10, but does not target younger children yet. This essay investigates in what ways children from four to six can be included in the canon's project and the existent possibilities to develop a 'kleutercanon' in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum 1. Literacy research about psychological development and learning in museums of children from four to six, case studies about history exhibitions for this young audience and meetings with museum workers have allowed to circumscribe the possibilities of the development of a 'kleutercanon'. This essay sheds light on the educational interest to start connecting young children to the past of The Netherlands and highlights the ways in which a meaningful connection to the canon of Dutch history can be offered to this audience in the museum.
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Keywords: The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, young children, canon of Dutch history, education.
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The appellation 'kleutercanon' combines the word kleuter which in Dutch means children from three/four to six and the 1
word 'canon' which stands for the canon of Dutch history. This portmanteau word defines thus the adaptation of the canon of Dutch history to these young children.
Acknowledge
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I wish to thank everyone who helped me during the process of writing my thesis.
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I would like to thank my two tutors Mirjam Hoijtink and Ad de Jong for the several inspiring meetings which helped me to delimitate and develop my subject.
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I especially want to thank Ad de Jong for proposing me to adapt my first subject about history education for young children in museums in the context of the development of the canon of Dutch history in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum and for the great availability and support during these several months of study.
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In The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, I wish to thank Maurits van Ravesteyn, who, with great availability and generosity, introduced me to the museum and offered me many ideas for the development of my subject during an inspiring conversation.
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Also, in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, I want to thank Gitta Paans and Olaf Peters for sharing with me advices and tips about my subject.
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I would like to convey my gratitude to Gundy van Dijk, who offered me her time to discuss my subject and shared with me her experience about young children in museums. This conversation has been meaningful for the development of my thesis.
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Finally, I would like to thank Astrid Fiddelers for communicating information about young children's programs in The Amsterdam Museum.
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Table
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contents
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Introduction
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Part 1 - Circumscribing the transmission of the canon to children
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1.1 Young children's understanding of the canon………….….………..….…13! 1.1.1 A little sense of time
1.1.2 A historical thinking seed
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1.2 The educational objectives of the 'kleutercanon'……….……….….. 20
1.2.1 'Kleutercanon': a foundation for the future learning of the canon 1.2.2 Raising awareness of history
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Part 2 - Providing children with meaningful connections to the canon
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2.1 Constructivism: one appropriated education method for the 'kleutercanon'…………..…… 24
2.1.1 The different education theories
2.1.2 Confronting Behaviorism and Constructivism for the 'kleutercanon'
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2.2 Creating meaningful history museum experiences for children………..………29
2.2.1 Ways to ensure children meaning-making in museums
2.2.2 Reflection over meaningful history exhibitions for young children
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Part 3 - Using playing to connect children to the canon
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3.1 Playing with history………..……..36
3.1.1 Children learn by playing… in the museum
3.1.2 The role of playing in history exhibitions for young children
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3.2 Role-play as a bridge to connect children to the canon………..…………..…………..39
3.2.1 Being in the shoes of people from the past
3.2.2 Role-playing the canon: examples of implementation in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum
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Conclusion…..
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References
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List of illustrations
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Appendixes
……….………….…..51Introduction
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The canon of Dutch history defines the cultural identity of The Netherlands 2. The 50 constitutive points of the canon, also called 'windows', illustrate the main cultural and historical elements— figures, dates and events— that have founded in its specificity and uniqueness the country of The Netherlands 3. The creation of this document supported by the Dutch government is fundamentally based on a political objective and is viewed as a way to promote a better 'living together'. The canon offers a fundament of identity references that Dutch citizens share together and make them belonging to one entity 4. Under this perspective, the 50 windows should be known by every Dutch citizen. To promote its knowledge among the population, the Dutch government has decided to include the canon in the education system and functions as the landmark for the history learning at school for children from 8 to 14 5. To the government, besides schools, museums have also a fundamental role
In this thesis, the word 'canon of Dutch history' will be often shortened in 'canon' when there is no misunderstanding 2
possible with other kinds of canon.
In 2005, the Ministry of Culture, Education and Science has charged a commission led by Frits van Oostrom, Dutch 3
historian, to constitute the canon of Dutch history. The canon van Nederland, as it is called in Dutch, is composed of fifty points. These fifty points are defined as 'windows' and play the role of 'eye-catchers' to the main historical and cultural aspects of The Netherlands. Randomly, Erasmus, the Hanseatic league, the Grachtengordel, Michiel de Ruyter, Spinoza, Napoleon, Vincent van Gogh, the Constitution of The Netherlands, Willem Drees, the port of Rotterdam or Srebrenica compose the canon. The decision to compose a canon of Dutch history has resulted by a document published in 2005 by the Onderwijsraad, De stand van educatief Nederland. This advisory organism has the mission to furnish to the
government appraisal and recommendations about the Dutch education system. In the publication of 2005, the Raad stated the necessity for schools to have a better and reinforced social mission. In this context, it advocated the importance to define a Dutch cultural identity that according to the Onderwijsraad, could be done in the form of a 'canon'.
Onderwijsraad. Stand van educatief Nederland. Advies. Den Haag, 2005. See website of the canon of Dutch history: http://www.entoen.nu
The commission van Oostromin charge by the government to elaborate the canon of Dutch history explains that in a 4
multicultural society as the one in The Netherlands, it seems important to know what gather Dutch citizens together and what are the common values. Naturally, the creation of the canon has not been made without raising many critics among the Dutch society. For the detractors, it is a problem to let the cultural history being framed by the political power. There is a risk of reducing to one voice something that concerns actually so many different voices, — all Dutch population—, or there is a risk of an aggressive annexation and alienation of something which belongs to everyone. One of the questions was, what value can possibly have an identity which is defined from above without consultation of the population?
Ministerie van OCW. De Canon van Nederland, Rapport van de commissie ontwikkeling Nederlands Canon, Deel A, 2006:18-19.
Since August 2010, the canon of Dutch history has been officially included in the teaching objectives of primary and 5
secondary education. In history education at school, the use of the canon is often combined with the use of the 'ten periods' of the history of The Netherlands by Piet de Rooy, Dutch historian.This chronological presentation insists more on the development of a historical consciousness by learners.
'Wat is de canon van Nederland?'. Voorgezet onderwijs. Rijksoverheid. February, 2014. <http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ onderwerpen/voortgezet-onderwijs/vraag-en-antwoord/wat-is-de-canon-van-nederland.html>
by bringing the rest of the population in contact with the canon 6. In this context, The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum has been officially in charge, since 2013, to integrate the presentation of some of the 50 windows in the museum spaces 7. With this project, the social role of the museum is reaffirmed. Placed in the movement of new museology and especially of citizen museology, The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum functions as a favored medium to access the community, encourage social mobilization and foster the social link among population 8.
The government's choice for this museum in Arnhem to fulfil this mission must be understood in relation with the aborted project of The Nationaal Historisch Museum (NHM). Originally, this new institution, also planned to be in Arnhem, was dedicated to present the national history of The Netherlands and in which the canon would have had an important part 9. The decision to stop definitively this project in 2012 for financial reasons has forced the government to find alternatives for the presentation of the canon. From the beginning, The NHM and The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum were strongly connected. Their geographic proximity, both located in Arnhem, was seen as a good way to offer a presentation of the canon in two complementary prisms: the national history and the history of The Netherlands presented through the people. After the cessation of the project of The NHM, it seemed obvious that The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum had to take
Ministerie van OCW. De Canon van Nederland, Rapport van de commissie ontwikkeling Nederlands Canon, Deel A, 6
2006: 67.
On 1 January 2013, the museum received two million Euros subsidies from the government for the implementation and 7
development of the canon of Dutch history. This subsidy is renewed every year, for a period of four years. In total, 8 million Euros will be thus transferred to the museum. The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum has been charged by the government to present the canon in collaboration with the history department of The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Cardin, Jean-François, e.a. Histoire, musées et éducation à la citoyenneté, Québec: Éditions Multimondes, 2010: 8
309-330.
The first idea to establish a National History Museum has been raised by two deputies, Jan Marijnissen and Maxime 9
Verhagen. For them, this museum would be a perfect medium to promote the historical awareness by Dutch and gather them around what is their common heritage. After the acceptation of the project by the Dutch government, in 2007, many discussions has arisen about the location of this new museum. In 2009, it was decided to place it next to The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem. This new museum would present the history of The Netherlands, and, as it was aimed by the two deputies, foster an awareness by Dutch population about the history of their country. During the elaboration of the project, the NHM was since 2010 temporary established in the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam. Finally, on January 2012, in a context of budget savings, the minister of Culture, Halbe Zijstra decided to stop the construction of the NHM, by cutting all subventions.
Bockma, Harmen. 'Nationaal Historisch Museum: al omstreden voor het was opgericht'. Volkskrant.nl, 2011. June, 2014. <http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/3360/musea-en-galerieen/article/detail/2443004/2011/06/08/Nationaal-Historisch-Museum-al-omstreden-voor-het-was-opgericht.dhtml>
over the role of presenting the history of The Netherlands 10. The institution in Arnhem has an aura and a visibility in the Dutch museum landscape necessary to make the canon audible among population. The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum is a popular in The Netherlands and is the most visited museum outside the conurbation which gathers the cities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Rotterdam. Moreover, the attractive and accessible presentation of its collection that offers this open air museum, suits perfectly with the general objective of the canon's mission which is to interest as much as possible Dutch citizens of their country's history.
The canon's mission does not have only financial reverberations for The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, but has only impacts for its museology policy. It demands the direction of the museum to shift, or at least to adapt the own mission of the institution. The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum is a museum which presents the history of The Netherlands in its everyday life 11. In the park, farms, mills and other buildings introduce the visitors to the stories of the inhabitants of the past over the course of time in the country. This presented history is confronted with the one of the canon. There are two ways of approaching to the past of The Netherlands: the national history in the canon, in other words the 'big history' of important figures, dates and events and the 'little history', the one of the people and their daily life in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. By accepting the mission of the canon, the direction will have to give space for the presentation of this other history 12. In general, in the rest of the museum park, the direction has decided to present the different windows from 'below', respecting the line of the original mission of the institution 13.
The choice to stop the construction of The NHM mainly lies on financial reasons. The presentation of the canon in an 10
existing museum, as The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, would considerably reduce the costs for the government, from the original 50 million Euros planned for the full construction of the NHM, to the 8 million Euros dedicated for the implementation of the canon in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
Zom, Dirk-Jan. 'Openluchtmuseum krijgt taken Nationaal Historisch Museum'. Nrc.nl, 2011. June, 2014. < http:// www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/06/10/openluchtmuseum-krijgt-taken-nationaal-historisch-museum/>
'Missie, visie en doelstellingen'. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. February, 2014. <http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/ 11
wie-zijn-wij/missie/>
! This will be mainly done in a coming digital and interactive exhibition in which the history of The Netherlands will be 12
presented chronologically, divided into periods, and in which the canon will be successively integrated. This presentation will combined two different divisions made of the history of The Netherlands. It will combined the one elaborated by the commission de Rooy, in which history is placed in periods and the presentation of the history of The Netherlands in windows, elaborated by the commission van Oostrom. In this exhibition, each presented window will be highlighted in order to reach different levels of understanding, including children, and maybe even young children. Nevertheless, this interactive exhibition has not been yet developed and many elements are still being questioned. !
Information communicated during a personal conversation with Maurits van Ravesteyn, Head of Education in the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, on February 13, 2014.
'Minister Bussemaker start herbouw watersnoodwoning'. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. March, 2014. <http:// 13
Thereby, the topics of the canon will be highlighted from the perspective of the people 14. Although some new elements have been acquired by the museum to present the topics of the canon, most of them will be illustrated by the collection already existent in the park 15. One of the questions which raises from this museology choice is if there is not a risk for the institution, by adapting their collection to the story of the canon, to narrow the other possible stories that could be told. As one significant example, the Moluccan barack,— a house given to Indonesian soldiers who helped The Netherlands during the Indonesian National Revolution and who have finally moved in the country — will probably serve to illustrate the window about multiculturalism in the Dutch society' 16. The integration of the building within the story of the canon arises the question if this presentation won't lead to exclude other people's possible interpretations about this place, the one of Moluccan's descendants for example. Is there not a risk that the canon becomes a jail for the presentation of the collection and that the official story becomes the only one relevant? On this last point lies all the issue of this project. The challenge of this presentation for the museum is to give space to visitor's interpretations and make them involved in order to perform the original social and citizen goal of the canon's project.
Next to the question concerning the museology choice of the museum around the canon, it comes the particular point of the target audiences. To whom exactly should it be presented? The education department has already developed programs around the canon for schoolchildren from age 10 and the different existing windows in the park mainly target an adult audience 17. Within the education department of the museum it has raised the question whether young children below age 6 should be included in the canon's project. This question is naturally asked as this audience composes a significant part of the total visitors. The museum in Arnhem is appreciated by families and young
For example, a pumpjack has been placed in the museum park last march.It offers an illustration to the topic of the 14
canon about natural gas by evoking the extraction of fossil fuel in The Netherlands.The choice was made to tell around this machine the story about how people could all have the possibility with gas to warm their house.
A pumpjack, as an illustration of the natural gas resource present in The Netherlands and an emergency house given to
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victims of the flood in 1953 have been recently acquired and are today displayed in the museum. For the rest of the development of the canon, the museum starts with what already exists in the park, for example the Moluccan barack, model of an accommodation received by Indonesians soldiers, the Chinese restaurant and the Dutch reformed church from 's Heerenhoek. These buildings can serve to illustrate different windows of the canon; for example, the one about multicultural society, Veelkleurig Nederland, or about the translation of the Bible in Dutch during the 17th century, Statenbijbel.
Personal conversation with Maurits van Ravesteyn, on February 13, 2014. Ibidem.!
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This canon is called in Dutch Veelkleurig Nederland.
Two activities based on the topics of the canon, the opposition against child labor and multiculturalism in the Dutch 17
children because its open air setting allows an active and lively exploration that fits to the needs and the characteristics of this group of visitors 18. Regarding the objective of the canon in the museum which is to foster a 'living together' through recognizing our common and collective history, we do not understand why this young audience, as a constitutive part of the society, could be neglected in this project. Especially, as being the future citizens of the country, young children are totally concerned by the intrinsic objective of the canon. Following this consideration, the main question of the thesis is translated in these terms:
—in what ways can The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem include the
education of children from four to six in its mission to transmit the canon of Dutch history?—
Within this question, raises the fundamental point of why this transmission of the canon must be conducted in the museum and how. Enlightenment to these questions can be found in the literature written about young children in museums by Barbara Piscitelli and Lynn McRainey. The book written by a collective of American museum workers and educators, and supervised by Russick and McRainey, Connecting kids to history with museum exhibitions, takes children as a core audience in history museums 19. This collective of authors demonstrates that it exist ways to connect young children to history and that history museums must start taking into account this audience, too often absent and not considered. They state that this is not because young children understand history differently than older children and adults, that they must be put aside in these museums. Museums must recognize their abilities to connect the past and adapt it in their educational programs 20. This collective gives thus advices about how this audience can be meaningfully engaged in experiences with the past, from the different ways to transmit the content to the design of the exhibition. The large literature written by Barbara Piscitelli, Professor of Education and the research group QUT Museums Collaborative is an essential source to shed light on young children's learning in
Since already ten years now, the museum has taken into account this existing audience and have developed two 18
programs for them, Keuterboeren, and later, De dag van Deetje. De dag van Deetje is a program proposed to families with four-to-six-years-olds and to school groups 1 to 3. In a route throughout the museum park, children discover the life of Deetje, a little girl who lived in The Netherlands before. With Keuterboeren, schoolchildren of groups 1 and 2 discover the life of cotters, and especially get aware about where their food come from.
'Schoolprojecten'. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. February, 2014. <http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/bezoek-met-groep/ basisonderwijs/schoolprojecten/>
McRainey Lynn, John Russick. Connecting kids to history with museum exhibitions. CA: Left Coast Press, 2010. 19
McRainey, Russick, 2010: 17. 20
museums 21. For several years, she has led different studies in which she observed museum visits of children from four to eight in different kinds of museums, in family and school contexts. Her goal was to better understand their experiences and their learning during a museum visit, elements that have not yet been deeply researched in the beginning of the 21st century 22. In her studies, she concludes with the need for museums to conceive 'meaningful experiences' for children, in order to provide them with learning opportunities. She explains that psychological characteristics, needs, motivations and interests of the focus audience must be fully considered by educators and developers in order to create understandable and adapted contents. A meaningful experience is one in which visitors can link the proposed message or content of the exhibition with their personal context, and which fully fits with the ways they understand the world. In this thesis, the objective to promote the development of a 'kleutercanon' requires to shed light on the possibilities for young children to connect the canon and the meaningful ways for the museum to present it. Obviously, the transmission of the canon to four-to-six-year-olds should not be seen as self-evident. History, as a subject to be handled with this group so much in the 'here and now', is risky and have to be carefully thought. The transmission of the canon must provide young children with meaningful connections by respecting their psychological characteristics, their ways of making sense out of the world and their interests. Essentially, the presentation of the 50 windows has to diverge from the traditional chronological presentation of history as well as envisaging other ways for them to connect it, being for example more sensory than cognitively-based.
! Literary research has been the first strategy used to define how a meaningful museum
connection to the canon of Dutch history for young children can be done. Research about the psychological development of children from four to six has been necessary to shed light on the state of their knowledge and their understanding of the world. In this part of the research, their notion of time has been the main focus. Knowing their notion of time enables to define their historical thinking and thus, their readiness to connect history. A second pillar of the literacy research has concerned museum education and its particular applications for young children. This research has allowed shedding light on the ways to transmit contents to this audience in the most meaningful way. One of the other strategies of this thesis has been the leading of case study. The goal of this case study was
QUT stands for Queensland University of Technology. In 1997, museum educators and administrators joined 21
university researchers to form a collaborative team to examine the experiences of young children visiting museums. Piscitelli, Barbara. e.a. 'Young children’s learning in museums settings'. Visitor studies today, 2000, Vol III, issue 3: 3.
Piscitelli, Barbara. e.a. 'Children’s museum experiences: identifying powerful mediators of learning'. The Museum 22
to assess how Dutch history museums connect children from four to six to the past of The Netherlands in their educational programs 23. The data gathered during the literacy research mixed with the one gathered during the participations of the programs offered a good insight of what exactly looks like a meaningful museum experience with the past for young children. Finally, interviews of staff of the education department in different Dutch history museums have been conducted 24. These meetings have allowed to offset the theoretical data of the literacy research and to offer a more concrete image of the audience of young children in the museum; their learning, their needs and their motivations. Mainly, they opened the path by addressing tips and advices for envisaging a development of a 'kleutercanon' in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
The transmission of the complete canon of the Dutch history to four-to-six-year-olds is not possible. Young children still have a too unsettled sense of time to encompass the large temporal scale which demands the understanding of history. The precise study of their notion of time and thus the state of their historical thinking in the section 1 enables to define the essence and the tone of the 'kleutercanon' and the educational objectives that can be targeted. For the 'kleutercanon', the mission of The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum is to transmit the proposed content in the most adapted way in order to foster its appropriation by the target audience. In section 2, the study of different education theories aims to define the most adapted one for the 'kleutercanon' and the ways to effectively make this museum experience with the past a meaningful experience for young children. Four-to-six-year-olds do not have yet the full notion of time to understand history; however, this notion is not the only requisite to connect this subject. The section 3 studies the existing ways for these children to connect history, and the ways to adapt these ones in museum programs.
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Keuterboeren and De dag van Deetje in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, The little Orphanage in The Amsterdam 23
Museum, Ouwe dingen, nieuwe dingen in The Valkhof Museum, Wonen aan de gracht in The Willet-Holthuysen Museum have been parts of this case study.
! Personal conversations with Gundy van Dijk, museum educator (Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, Van Gogh 24
Museum) and specialist of Visible Thinking in museums, with Maurits van Ravesteyn, Head of Education in The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, and with Astrid Fiddelers, Project Leader for family eventsin The Amsterdam Museum.
1. Circumscribing the transmission of the canon to young children
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1.1 Young children's understanding of the canon
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1.1.1 A little sense of time
The state of the notion of time by young children
In order to envision the transmission of the canon to young children, their understanding of history must be clearly delimited. History, personal or collective, defines a succession of events in humanity’s past 25. History is grounded in the past and its understanding by individuals is totally dependent on their sense of time. The sense of time by children between four to six years old is in the middle of an important development. The elements upon which this sense can eventually develop, the capacity of reasoning, the memory and the speech become progressively sharper and more accurate by young children. Nevertheless, the full sense of time is not yet fully mastered 26.
Time by young children is mainly a personal time 27. The comprehension of the rhythm and the structure of time starts with references to their own lives. They first master the chronology of the day, as they can establish a relation with their own daily activities. For example, the evening is the time to have dinner and the mornings are for going to school. Afterwards come the seasons, winter spring, etc. In the same way, children can relate seasons to their own activities: doing tobogganing during the winter and going on holidays during the summer. The frequency of the events in their lives helps children to recognize and indicate their first time references 28. The concept of days, months and years is more difficult to understand because they are abstract and related to a conventional calendar. For example, the date of the year is difficult for these children as it means that
! 'Histoire'. Encyclopédie Larousse. March, 2014. < http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/histoire/40070> 25
To define precisely the sense of time of young children, it is possible to have a look at their use of time-related 26
notions. What children use in their speech show what they understand and have acquired. The table in appendix 1 summarizes the notion of time of young children through their used time-words and expressions related to the main different features of time: the three tenses, the duration, the order of events and the time-related necessary skills to have historical thinking.
This part deals with the development of the notion of time by young children in a cognitive perspective. The cultural 27
differences in the understanding of time, between for example the conception of the cyclic time or the linear time, -the ancient Greek conception versus Judeo-Christian thought—, are here left out.
Vallet, Odon. 'Temps et religion'. Autres temps, cahier d'éthique sociale et politique. 1998, vol 57: 25-30.
! Godard, Lucie, Michelle Labelle. 'Le développement de la localisation dans le temps chez des enfants de 5 à 9 ans de 28
they must have mastered the concept of periodicity and cycles. In other words, they must understand that there are 365 days and 12 months in a year, and that this pattern repeats itself every year. Young children are not yet able to have such a reasoning 29. Their comprehension of days and seasons does not mean that they have mastered the abstract concept of time. At this moment, their notion of time is based only on the observations and experiences of their daily lives 30.
Young children mainly live 'here and now'; their relation to the world is attached to the present. For instance, up to three years of age children only express themselves in the present 31. Progressively they start to place themselves in time and to use the other tenses: the past and the future. Four-to-six-years-olds have already a timeline: they have a representation of the past and the future. Nevertheless, they are not yet capable of positioning the different moments of time in relation to each other. To give an example, in case there are two different moments in the past, they cannot say which one happened first. To be able to do this mental operation, lived experiences of the child must be turned into memories. The progressive accumulation of memories ensures a wider timeline. In this process, speech plays also an important role; memory and speech are bound with each other: what has been expressed is better remembered. Children from four to six years old do have memories, but these are not yet organized and positioned in relation to each other 32. For the moment, they are all placed in an indistinctive ‘yesterday’ 33.
The comprehension of one of the essential characteristics of time, the order and the succession of events, has made by young children big steps, but stays mainly small. For example, young children know the order of the days of the week. However, they know it because they have learnt the name of the days by heart, and they are not capable to elaborate operations regarding that order. For instance, if someone asks the child which day precedes Thursday, he might be incapable to give an accurate answer, even when he can perfectly recite
! Godard, Labelle, 1998: 250. 29 ! Ibidem: 235. 30 Fraisse, 1957:156. 31
! Fraisse notes that a five-year-old child can have two year old memories. 32
! Fraisse, 1957:156-159. 33
the order of the days of the week 34. Young children cannot do operations about time as they have not yet mastered the structure of time (Succession, cycle, repetition). Situating an event inside conventional time—divided in days, months and years— is thus impossible for them. The only thing they can do is position their own activities and events in relation to each other in a simple ‘before’ and ‘after’ 35.
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The notion of time explained by the cognitive development of young children
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Young children are not yet 'cognitively enough skilled' to understand one of the most complex and abstract notions, that of time. Adults for whom their cognitive skills of speech, memory and reasoning are completely developed can link with each other the different characteristics of time, namely, irreversibility, duration, idea of cycle and linearity, time horizon and order of events and mirror the depth and the amplitude of time 36. Intellectually, children are still marked by two main characteristics, the egocentrism and the intuitive capacity of reasoning, which constrain them to master the concept of time. Jean Piaget, a worldwide reference in children's psychological development, has shed light on the egocentrism of children from two to seven 37. He explains that "the child remains unconsciously centered on himself" 38. This egocentrism constrains him to fully consider individuals as distinct individuals from himself; he cannot make a distinction between the self and external reality. Piaget shows that this egocentric attitude is how the child progressively constructs and develops his consciousness of the self in the external world. Firstly focused on him, the child progressively "situates himself in an objective universe" 39. Being able to place himself in an objective world is a mandatory feature to understand time. Understanding time requires the capacity of individuals to see themselves as part of it, which it still impossible for these 'egocentric' children. Along with the egocentrism, Piaget points out the inexistent capacity of four-to-six-years-olds to reason logically, which is an evident blocking for the mastery of the concept
! Godard, Labelle. 1998: 257. 34
! Fraisse,1957: 178. 35
Montangero, Jacques. 'Perspectives actuelles sur la psychogenèse du temps'. L'année psychologique, 1984, vol 84, n 36
°3: 446- 447.
! Piaget defines different steps in the psychological development of children. For example, children from two to seven 37
are in the ‘pre-operational stage’.
! Piaget, Jean. Six psychological studies. Brighton: The Harvester Press Limited, 1980: 21. 38
Piaget, 1980:18. 39
of time. For the psychologist, they have not acquired the structures on which they can ground their logical reasoning. For the moment, reasoning is led by their intuition and is verified by the direct perception of things: what they see, they believe 40. Since they cannot operate logical reasonings, the concept of causality is then also lacking.
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1.1.2 A historical thinking seed
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Development of the skills to understand history
Whereas speaking about a historical thinking by four-to-six-years-olds is maybe too early, a 'history seed' is even developing. In young children, the different skills which are necessary for the study of history have already started to develop. First of all, they start being able to put events in an ordered succession which reveals their capacity to establish a chronology. This capacity has been put into practice in a teaching method, called Tijdstip, which offers a first initiation of history to four-to-six-year-old children in Dutch schools 41. This method proposes exercises to develop the skills related to time, all of them essential for the development of the historical thinking. In different exercises children can classify moments and events in a certain order.
Illustration 1: "My diary", "I am going grocery shopping", exercise n°5 and n° 32 in the activity book
Tijdstip.
! 'Piaget on Piaget, Part 1'. Youtube. October, 2010. February, 2014 <https://www.youtube.com/watch? 40
v=I1JWr4G8YLM>
! Eijnden, Rienkje van der, Eugenia Smit. Tijdstip. Geschiedenismethode voor de basisschool 1-2: Activiteitenboek. 41
For instance, in illustration 1, in the exercise n°5, children have to tell what they do during the day and put the different events in chronological order, —morning, afternoon and evening— 42. In the exercise n°32, children have to choose the correct order for the different steps of grocery shopping 43. In these two exercises, the concept of chronology is introduced through the lens of the life of the child, his daily life and his daily activities. They learn that events of their own daily life respect a certain order. As we have seen before, the connection with time—and thus of history— starts with the personal life of children.
Piaget has shown that young children have a lacking sense of causality. Since studying history is searching for the causes of historical events and shedding light on how the different events are connected over time in a relation of cause/consequence, it appears thus impossible to start introducing children to history 44. Although Piaget is still today one of the major references in children's psychological development, different points of his theory have been questioned and especially the one about causality. Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has conducted a study about the learning of new causal relations by two-to-four-years-olds and it has shown that these children can already indicate causes of certain effects 45. In one of her studies, she states: "before age 5, children seem to understand important things about how physical objects cause each other to move; how biological entities cause to growth, inheritance, and illness; and how desires, emotions, and beliefs cause human actions" 46. Clearly, there is no other subject but history which can eventually reveal more about "how desires, emotions, and beliefs cause human actions". About the canon's transmission, this quote is really interesting as it shows that the little sense of causality of young children can already be used to start connecting them to history. Whereas it is obvious that this little sense of causality does not yet allow children to understand powerful abstractions of history, its appearance raised by Gopnik shows that something about historical thinking has started to increase. In this context, history seems not as external to young children as it has been showed by Piaget.
Eijnden, Smit. 2005: 22. 42
Ibidem: 60. 43
Duluermoz, Quentin, Pierre Singaravélou. 'Des causes historiques aux possibles du passé? Imputation causale et 44
raisonnement contrefactuel en histoire'. Labyrinthe 39, 2012, n° 39: 55-79.
! Raijmakers, Maartje, e.a. 'Kleuters aan zet'. Talenten kracht, november 2010 : 6. 45
! Gopnik, Alison, e.a. 'Causal learning mechanisms'. Developmental psychology, 2001,vol 37, n°5: 620. 46
Young children start to become aware of the fact that there has been 'something' before them 47. The progressive understanding of the 'before' goes through different steps and is firstly grounded on the personal life of the child. Children realize that events in their own life have taken place. The accumulation of their memories progressively enables them to constitute their own history. Hereafter, knowledge gained from their own life experience is then, little by little, enriched by the one of their parents and grandparents 48. They understand that their parents have also been children before and that during the period of their grandparents, houses and people looked different 49. Finally, later on, older children will be able to be interested in a history disconnected with their personal life; a history that they have not lived 50. During the period going from age four to six, the understanding of the past is still attached to their own reality and the grandparents' figure functions as a metonymy of the past.
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Development of the historical thinking in young children
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Children from four to six do not have history lessons at school, but methods to initiate a first connection to this subject do exist, for example, Tijdstip. In this method, nothing about history itself is told to children; the goal is not to transmit knowledge but to exercise the skills that are later necessary to learn history later. For three-to-six-years old schoolchildren, the objective is to offer a first meeting with the past, in which the youngest pupils realize that things change in proportion as time goes on 51. They learn that their daily events respect a chronology. They learn that events of their lives have happened and will happen, and finally, they learn to differentiate the past from the present. This history teaching method goes on and proposes a content to groups 3 and 4. The objective is to continue the exploration of what has been seen before. Their timeline is expanded. They go on with the ranking of events in the past or in the present and have a first look towards the future 52.
McRainey, Russick, 2010: 187. 47
"Young people who may have no understanding of historical causation or precedent nonetheless grasp intuitively the notion that they are the layers of the past beneath us".
! Fraisse,1957: 176. 48
! Dingemanse, M.A.J, e.a. Legitimeringsrapport ontwerpen van leersituaties, Nederlands Openluchtmuseum. Diss. 49
Universiteit Utrecht, 2010: 17. Fraisse, 1957:177.
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Eijnden, Smit, 2005: 6. 52
Along with school, children's entourage can also be an actor in supporting and expanding their historical thinking. History is all around them. Historical events or characters are often the basis of their favorite books and movies. Children might already have visited historical sites, medieval castles and other prehistoric graves. Adults can use this everyday life setting to bring progressively children into contact with history and train their historical skills. Firstly, they can support the development of their sense of time, essential basis for a further comprehension of history. Adults can play a vital role in this process, through the simple fact of promoting rich time-related conversations with children 53. They can use words that the child already knows to comfort his learning and little by little incorporate new time-related words. Necessary skills for the understanding of history, the idea of the sequence and order of events can be introduced through simple daily activities such as cooking a cake, which makes children aware of the fact that a certain order of actions must be respected. They learn gradually the idea of cause and effect of each of their actions 54. Storytelling is also an effective way to make children learn this concept. By encouraging them to tell their own stories, they learn to structure the narration, using a beginning, middle and an end. Knowing that the historical thinking start with the children's own history and goes further into the one of their family, parents and grandparents can play a vital role in this development 55. They can tell stories about their own childhood, how it was when they were younger and show pictures of when they were babies 56. These activities enable children to progressively understand the idea of succession of generations and make them realize that their parents and grandparents were also younger before. Through this familiar frame, children learn to make connections to the past and start to find their place in the world 57.
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! McRainey, Russick, 2010: 41. 53 ! Ibidem: 42. 54 McRainey, Russick, 2010: 64. 55 ! Dingemanse, e.a, 2010: 17. 56 ! McRainey, Russick, 2010: 57. 571.2 The educational objectives of the 'kleutercanon'
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1.2.1 'Kleutercanon': a foundation for the future learning of the canon
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Young children do not understand history as adults or older children. They are not able to understand that their present is the result of past changes and evolution and that "the present is the result of choices that people made and the beliefs they held in the past" 58. The question that rises here is why should we already start the transmission of the canon of Dutch history to young children whereas their understanding of history is still quite limited? From age eight, children master the concept of succession, cycle and duration, and estimations of duration start to be accurate 59. They are able to place moments in time, as past, present and future, and since they reach nine years of age, they estimate differences in a given amount of time. For instance, they can understand the difference between events which took place 100 years ago or 200 years ago 60. Eight-year-old children can be interested in a history they have not lived. They can be interested in historical figures and historical events 61. The interrogation is thus why don't we start this transmission at age eight, when the notion of time is completely accomplished and guarantees a good and fast learning of history?
The early transmission of history to children has been defended by Kieran Egan, Professor of Education at the Simon Fraser University in Canada. He says: "I shall argue here that is it both possible and desirable to teach history to young children" 62. Egan explains that those children who have had this early connection to history will be in "a better position to develop sophisticated historical concepts" 63. He adds: "the early learning of basic history is important for later understanding. What is learned early is not simply a prerequisite for later understanding ; it is a
constituent of it" 64. The simple interrogation about the transmission of the canon to young children would be then why we should not start it if there are already gateways towards the subject and an educational interest. The original goal of the canon is to make Dutch citizens, and especially the
U.S. Department of Education. Helping your child learn history, with activities for children in preschool through 58 grade 5. Washington D.C, 2004: 6. ! Fraisse, 1957: 232. 59 ! McRainey, Russick, 2010: 249. 60 ! Fraisse, 1957:176. 61
Egan, Kieran. 'Teaching history to young children'. The Phi Delta Kappan, 1983, vol 63, n°7: 439. 62
! Egan,1983: 441. 63
! Ibidem: 441. 64
future citizens, children, aware of their country's history. The elaboration of this document has mainly resulted on the ascertainment of a broad weak interest of history by Dutch schoolchildren, compared to the other European countries 65. In this context, the argument of Egan which says 'sooner is better' gives a total relevancy to the start of the transmission of the canon to young children. By starting soon, there are more chances that they develop an interest for the history of The Netherlands.
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1.2.2 Raising awareness of history
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'Me, my family, my life' is the only gateway to be envisaged for the transmission of the canon to young children. In order to introduce them in a certain relationship with the past, the connection must start with a 'present point', with what constitutes their daily life. The challenge of the mission of the 'kleutercanon' is thus to find a bound in which the topics of the canon would be related to the life of the little children 66. Firstly, the selection of the canon's windows is based on elements that are already known by children, somehow related to their daily life. Different topics seem to fit this category, for example, the one dedicated to Annie M.G. Schmidt 67. Annie M.G. Schmidt is the author of many books for children, for instance Jip and Janneke and Pluk van de Petteflet. These figures are well known by children of all ages and constitute one of their heroes. The topic called Spoorlijn which deals about the development of railways in The Netherlands can be envisaged to be part of the 'kleutercanon', since trains and means of transport represent a great centre of interest to young children 68. Related to the child's own reality, the themes about television and Michiel de Ruyter can be selected 69. This last topic about the 17th century Dutch Admiral could be a surprising choice, but since it deals with wars on sea, it can be related to children's eagerness for adventures on the sea and battles with pirates, which are often a central theme in their books. Some other themes of the canon which seem at first glance far away from the child's reality can nonetheless be selected by placing them into the context of their daily life. For example, the topic about the opposition against child
Onderwijsraad. Stand van educatief Nederland. Advies. Den Haag, 2005: 23. 65
In appendix 2, an illustration of the 50 windows of the canon of Dutch history can be found. 66
Ministerie van OCW. De Canon van Nederland, Rapport van de commissie ontwikkeling Nederlands Canon, Deel B, 67
2006: 99.
The interest of children for means of transport has been showed in one study about young children in museums. It has 68
revealed that objects related to transportation always got their particular attention.
Piscitelli, Barbara. David Anderson. 'Young children's perspectives of museum settings and experiences'. Museum Management and Curatorship, 2001, Vol. 19, No. 3: 275.
Ministerie van OCW, 2006: 95; 51. 69
labor during the 19th century can effectively be presented by a little girl who tells her very own daily life working all day in an industry. Through the prism of her daily life, young children can identify themselves and somehow connect this story to their personaldaily life, and develop an understanding of the proposed theme 70. Also, the topic called Veelkleurig Nederland which presents the multiculturalism in the Dutch society can be envisaged in this 'kleutercanon'. The idea of diversity in the society can be introduced to children in the ambience of their classroom.
Obviously, the objectives fixed for each of these windows in the context of history learning at school for older children have to be changed to fit young children's understanding and knowledge. In the 'kleutercanon', the goal with the topic about Annie M.G. Schmidt is not to let them understand the transformations that occurred during the post-war Dutch society 71. Neither is the purpose with
Spoorlijn to lead little children to understand the development of railways and the consequences that
it has had for the industrialization of the country, nor with opposition against child labor to understand the involvement of the state in the creation of laws to make school obligatory 72. The mechanisms, dynamics and transformations that occur in the history of the country are here left out. Instead of that, the general objective of this 'kleutercanon' is to offer a first contact with some figures, events and places of the canon. For example, they will hear something about Michiel de Ruyter and acquire possibly some biographical elements of his life 73. With Spoorlijn, children will get more familiar with trains and their functioning. They will become aware that the figures Jip, Janneke, or Pluk van de Petteflet come from the book by Annie Schmidt, and get to know more about her. Thereby, the first objective that can be linked up to the 'kleutercanon' is to transmit some factual knowledge to young children. Nevertheless, the goal is certainly not to strengthen history and make them learn anything about dates, periods and mechanisms from these windows.
Mainly, the transmission of the canon of Dutch history to young children is a good occasion to deepen their relation to the past. They start to learn to place themselves in a bigger scale that their own present. Through the canon's transmission, they start to understand that the present they know has not always been like that, and realize that the world is much bigger than their own little 'me' 74.
Ibidem: 73. 70
Ministerie van OCW. 2006: 99. 71
Ibidem: 73. 72
In appendix 4, the full educational program of this topic about Michiel de Ruyter for young children is proposed. 73
During a participative piece of theater, actors tell the story of the youth of Michiel de Ruyter on board of a merchant ship, engaged in a battle against a Spanish pirate ship.
Personal conversation with Gundy van Dijk, March 11, 2014. 74
This transmission can thus provoke a "core set of awareness", for instance, "someone came before me" and "people shape the world around them" 75. With the topic about child labor, they might start to realize that their daily life, as they experience it, —go to school, play with friends, have dinner and go to bed—, has not always been the daily life of other children of their age. They see that some children work, whatever this awareness took in the past or in the present. With the window about television, they might understand that this issue has not always been part of their grandparents' daily life. When their grandmother was a little girl, she did not have any television and had other kind of occupations and games to play with. The window Veelkleurig Nederland offers the opportunity to make children aware about the physical differences among their classroom's friends (Different skin color, types of hair, etc). This theme can introduce children to the idea that we might not all originally come from The Netherlands, but maybe from other continents and that we all have different kinds of habits and ways of living 76.
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2. Providing young children with meaningful connections to the canon
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2.1 Constructivism: one appropriated education method for the 'kleutercanon'
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2.1.1 The different education theories
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The main educational objective fixed for the 'kleutercanon' is to develop among young children an awareness of their place in the world by digging always more about their relationship to the past. The question which emerges here is how The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum can bring these children into this consciousness. To make the transmission of this objective effective, the museum should choose one educational trend 77. By following one education trend, the educators and developers of educational programs in the museum will have to define the ways they want to transmit the contents and the best ways to facilitate its appropriation by the audience. There are different education theories that can be followed. These have been synthesized by George Hein, author of Learning in
the museum, in the scheme in illustration 2.
Illustration 2: Sketch of education theories by George Hein
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! Hein, Georges. Learning in the museum. London: Routledge, 1998: 14-15. 77
In this sketch, each theory takes as foundation a specific conception of knowledge, learning and teaching. In other words, each theory —"stimulus-response, didactic, expository, discovery" and "constructivism"— defends a conception about how knowledge is acquired by learners, how people learn and finally, how knowledge must be taught 78. It can be drawn a main opposition between the education theories placed in the left side and the right side of the quadrant, namely "didactic, expository" and "stimulus-response", versus, "discovery" and "constructivism". The opposition of these two groups are based on the different ways they conceive education. The two trends imagined by Hein, "didactic, expository" and stimulus-response", can be placed in the general education movement called Behaviorism. In this movement, knowledge is seen as coming essentially from outside the learner 79. The mind of the learner is seen as an empty mind to be fulfilled. From this perspective, teaching is largely controlled by an external person who gives and transmits information, absorbed by the learner 80. This way of teaching is commonly found in schools in which knowledge is transmitted in the form of lessons 81. The other two educational 'directions' defined by Hein, "discovery" and "constructivism", can be placed in the Constructivism movement. This theory views the acquisition of knowledge as something that is self-constructed by the learner and which is influenced by external factors, experiences or social interactions. In that way, the construction of knowledge depends completely on the active participation of the learner. The students—in our case young children— are the own agents of their learning. Within this movement, divergences about how learning can be fostered start to appear. Some theoreticians think that, in the construction of knowledge, "experience is the most salient factor, whereas for others it might be social interaction" 82. The essential question that takes place here is, whether this construction is fostered by individual experiences or by social interactions, for instance, through discussions 83.
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! McRainey, Russick, 2010: 34. 79
Kozanitis, Adriana. Les principaux courants théoriques de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage : un point de vue 80
historique. Diss. Bureau d’appui pédagogique, École polytechnique de Montréal, 2005: 5. Hein, 1998: 25-26.
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McRainey, Russick, 2010: 34. 82
On this particular point lies the main difference between the Constructivism and the Socio-constructivism. Whereas in 83
Constructivism the emphasis is put on individuals and their personal construction of meaning, the Socio-constructivism insists on groups and on the mutual construction of meaning. The Constructivism is favored in this thesis because it has been chosen to focus on young children as individual visitors and not on families.
Choya, Maria. Family learning in museums. An observational study of the handling activities at the Horniman Museum. Diss. Museion/Gothenburg University, 2008: 26.
2.1.2 Confronting Behaviorism and Constructivism for the 'kleutercanon'
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For the transmission of the 'kleutercanon' two main educational possibilities are offered to The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum: the Behaviorism or the Constructivism. Whereas there are other education theories, these two are interesting to envisage because they propose two fundamentally opposed conceptions 84. Their study enable to define a clear educational line for the development of the 'kleutercanon'. Museums that choose the first way of education see themselves in an "information perspective" 85. The museum—the sender— passes on information to the audience—the receiver—. The most important goal for this museum is to arrange what should be learned by the visitors during their visit. For example, educational activities are largely fixed by specific learning objectives in which it is clearly stated what visitors should acquired in terms of specific knowledge 86. As a result of that, the Behaviorist museum appears as a "lesson-oriented" institution 87.
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Constructivism and insists on the social dimension of learning. The Cognitivism results from its opposition to the Behaviorism and stresses the cognitive mechanisms of learners, for example memory, which take place in the process of the construction of knowledge.!
Kozanitis, 2005: 1-14.
Silverman, Lois. 'Meaning making matters: communication, consequences, and exhibit design'. Exhibitionist, vol 18, n 85 °2: 9. Hein, 1998: 29-30. 86 Ibidem: 30. 87
Illustration 3: Example of a booklet for children created in The Musée de Cluny in Paris around an exhibition about sword.
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In illustration3, the two pages of a booklet created for children are a good example of the application of the Behaviorism in educational tools and materials in museums 88. Here, the educational goal is clearly expressed: children must learn specific elements about the use of a sword during The Middle Ages. Different questions in the booklet introduce the visitors to what they should learn and are finally driven to find the good answers. For instance, at the left page, they must connect each sword to their original place and date, and at the right page, they must link historical and legendary personages to their sword 89. The Behaviorism does not seem really appropriated for the 'kleutercanon'. As we have seen before, its main objective is not to transmit specific knowledge about the canon, but to encourage a personal awareness. Here, the main goal is not to make children learn dates, events, or special concepts about the canon.
Constructivist museums can be seen as the extreme opposite to Behaviorist ones. Museums that embrace the educational theory of Constructivism do not consider themselves as hierarchical institutions, as the ones 'holding knowledge'. Their goal is not to pass on contents to a passively receiving audience, but for visitors to create their own meaning from the objects, the labels and other
Educational material from The Musée de Cluny in Paris. 88
'Livret-jeu'. Réunion des musées nationaux. May, 2014. <www.rmn.fr/IMG/pdf/lepee_livret_jeux_net.pdf>
Naturally, this booklet is not appropriated for children from four-to-six-years-old. This document asks children to be 89
able to read and the questions require knowledge that they do not have yet. This booklet is addressed to children from age 7.
elements that are displayed 90. This idea is based on a general new theory about learning in museums which has shed light on the fact that visitors come in the museum with their own 'contexts', which happen to deeply influence the way they perceive and experience their visit 91. In other words, the visitors do not perceive directly —'without filter'— what is presented in the exhibition, instead of that, they construct their own knowledge based on what they are experiencing. Following this idea, museums' educators and developers offer possibilities for visitors to draw their own conclusions, make their own meaning of their museum experience. This Constructivist museum does not present 'the good interpretation', but all interpretations of visitors are valid and plausible 92. Regarding the difference with the Behaviorist booklet seen above, educational material that ask questions, do not tell afterwards what are the good answers, but "prompt visitors to find out themselves" 93.
Illustration 4: Part of the exhibition about Jack Kerouac in Lowell National Historical Park.
Hein, 1998: 34-35. 90
In Museum experience, Falk and Dierking have put forward three main contexts that visitors brings with them in the 91
museum and influence their experience. They have listed a personal, physical and social context. The personal context defines ones' interests, motivations and expectations of the visitor and the two other contexts define the physical setting of the museum and the social interactions. Falk and Dierking evaluate what those contexts influence one another. For example, how do the needs and the expectations of the visitor or the environment of the exhibition have an influence on the ways the visitor behaves in the museum, observes the exhibits or interacts with other visitors, and finally experience the museum visit.
Falk, John, Lynn Dierking. The museum experience, Washington: Whalesback Books, 1992. Hein, 1998: 34-35.
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The exhibition about Jack Kerouac presented in illustration 4 is a good example of an exhibition in which interpretations of visitors are taken into account by the museum. Here, visitors are invited to sit on a chair and type something—a sentence, a poem— which comes up from the reading of one quote of Jack Kerouac's book: "Never say a commonplace thing". Every single piece of paper that has been written by the visitors is displayed in a board and can be seen by everybody in the museum 94. Clearly, the Constructivist education movement seems to be an appropriated method to be applied to the 'kleutercanon'. The connection of the canon to young children does not target any goals related to the learning of specific knowledge that should be known. The main objective is to raise awareness of history, in which children can deep their relation to the past and find their place in the world. This objective is thus mainly based on a very personal encounter with the subject of the canon, and every child would have a very diverse experience during this encounter. In this case, The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum should not 'state' what children should be aware of, but give them opportunities to make their own new connections and expand their knowledge. By following the Constructivist approach for the 'kleutercanon', The Nederlands Openluchtmuseum will allow children to make their own meaning of their experience of the canon and allow effectively the development of this awareness.
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2.2 Creating meaningful history museum experiences for children
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2.2.1 Ways to ensure children meaning-making in museums
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In the Constructivist educational approach, the ability of children to be the own agent of their learning is emphasized, nonetheless, this does not mean that they are totally independent and self-sufficient in this process. Their meaning-making process needs to be supported and accompanied by others, and by specific elements that would enable to foster it. Firstly, to construct knowledge, they need opportunities to connect the proposed topic with what they already know and have experienced. To be able to learn something new, children need this step of 'known and recognized'. This essential element in the process of learning has been put into the spotlight by Piaget, French psychologist. Piaget says that the development of intelligence is possible by a double process in which the learner incorporates new elements from the external world into his existing knowledge and continually
Simon, Nina. The participatory museum. Online resource, May, 2014. <http://www.participatorymuseum.org/ 94
