Place-Based Learning: Museums and the Importance of Physical Space in Middle School Education

Before there were formalized schools, there were living rooms, church halls, back steps, battlefields, and the great outdoors. Education came in all shapes and sizes, from the modern understanding of “traditional” study through the analysis of past writings and artifacts to the natural signals one learned to recognize on the farm before an approaching storm. Students were not just young people hunched over a book shielded from the world behind brick walls. They were citizens learning how to manage a family business, reading and printing newspapers, planting seeds, plowing land, and striving to better prepare themselves for the future, whatever it held for them. Today’s students aim to do the same. Yet their education seems to have restricted itself to the boundaries of school property, or perhaps it occasionally wanders beyond county lines. What happened to learning about your environment— and all the life that lived and lives within it— by experiencing everything it has to offer firsthand?

    Growing up in Boston, Massachusetts, my love for social studies did not develop within the pages of a textbook or the slides of a PowerPoint (although, my classroom experiences did nourish my passion for history overtime). My curiosity itched for something to touch, to hold, to live, and to listen to so I could better understand the time period I was learning about. Words reproduced and long separated from their original source just did not do it for me. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to attend my town’s public schools, and the teachers took full advantage of the learning opportunities Boston’s museums, historical sites, and research centers have to offer. My learning was not directed away from personal experience when I walked along the Freedom Trail or watched a reenactment of a Native American ritual; on a field trip to a museum, my learning went beyond “something gained through reading texts, listening to lectures, or viewing videos rather than through experiencing full-bodied encounters with the world” (Smith, 2002, p. 586). I know my experience with museum education sounds progressive, but in reality, I find the place-based learning that occurs at museums and historical sites to be a step in the more traditional direction. Instead of hunching over a book and reading about storm warnings, I saw the thunderclouds roll in and felt the dampness in the air.

    The benefits of place–based education and the research supporting it are endless. John Dewey, the thinker behind Progressive education, noted that “children possess minds that are primarily drawn to actual phenomena rather than to ideas about phenomena” (Smith, 2002, p. 586), and his theories suggest that curriculum rooted in personal experience allows students to make meaning of their education as it relates to their real world as opposed to a textbook’s generalized version of the nonexistent, universal experience. As a future educator, I most strongly align with Dewey’s Theory of Progressive Education when reviewing my own beliefs regarding the importance of student–centered learning. You can read my past reflections on the history of Progressive Education and how I identify as a progressivist educator in older posts linked here (Theories in Education and Linking Literacy and Curriculum).

With Dewey’s progressive ideals in mind, it seems logical that educators striving to base their lessons around student voice, choice, and community engagement (as every educator should) would want to find ways to link curriculum to real-world experience. Of course, technology provides several platforms for digital field trips and modes of study around the world, and I fully believe that teachers should integrate technology into student learning experiences. However, technology does not allow students to step into the physical space of their own communities and the local places that are relevant to them in the now. This is where museums, local historical sites and societies, and community–based education are of the utmost importance.

Source: Edutopia

As seen in the video above, place–based learning (PBL) can take on many forms and allow for interdisciplinary lessons that emphasize the relevance of what students are learning in relation to their own communities and day–to–day lives. Teachers around the globe are test driving PBL initiatives in hopes of gaining ground for the progressive (yet simultaneously “back to roots”) style of education in schools. Back in Boston, where I personally experienced the student–centered, community–based education programs the city’s museums and historical sites have to offer, local high schools recently endeavored to develop shorter PBL programs that explored “two interdisciplinary topics, rivers and revolutions, through the lenses of literature, math, science, and history” (Wu, 2010). While the link between the two subjects may at first feel like a stretch— and it is important to note that the limitations and difficulties of “covering all subject areas with enough depth and breadth” (Wu, 2010) to adequately meet state requirements has been thoroughly assessed and acknowledged by advocates of PBL— Michael Goodwin’s PBL program at the Concord School of Philosophy prioritizes “students’ imaginations” (Wu, 2010) in a world of standardized testing. In Goodwin’s program, as in any other curriculum designed around PBL, the focus of the lessons is amplified by providing opportunities for student voice, choice, and community experiences through experiential learning.

Source: TEDxUWMilwaukee

Since the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of middle schoolers (young teens typically between the ages of 11 and 14) indicate the needs of students in and beyond the classroom, the link between PBL and middle grades education is logically supported by our understanding of adolescent development. In addition to the literal growth of the body, middle schoolers experience a growth in their ability to understand abstract thought, a continued need for both structured and unstructured physical and social activity, and a deeper need for a sense of identity and belonging, among other changes (Paterson). While every museum and educational program available to schools is different, the developmental benefits of going to a physical location relevant to student learning are apparent: Hein notes that in a survey of several art museum programs, museums across the country provide “not only the familiar classes and tours but activities such as organizing community festivals… and assisting students to curate exhibitions on museum websites” (Hein, p. 344), creating programs that cater to student needs while simultaneously bringing the classroom into the larger community.

Of course, there is not a museum or a historical site dedicated to every topic one may have to teach in his or her social studies or humanities classroom. Even more, not every school has access to these valuable resources in a timely, cost-efficient, and/or local manner. But what matters is that a museum, much like a classroom, does not have to fit the “traditional” idea of a building full of rooms with four walls. Students, especially middle schoolers, learn best through active education, and learning to recognize something like a town forest as a potential “museum” opens the door for active education in more traditional settings. PBL is just one of many ways that educators can get students out into the real world and help them see how what they are learning is relevant to them in the now. Incorporating PBL or other educational practices related to personal experience into curriculum is critical to the success of students as future citizens and continued learners; after all, one first needs to learn to recognize a storm before he or she can take a key and a kite to the skies. You can find an annotated bibliography of my sources and suggested further reading here.