Constructivistic approaches in the German museum education on the example of two so-called new industrial museums

Abstract

In the middle of the 20th century, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard came up with the constructivist theory of education as a way of more effective and meaningful learning and, in principle, as a counterpart to the transmissive education approach. While knowledge was until then considered independent of human thought and the learner was treated as a blank sheet of paper, constructivism pursues the idea of (re)constructing knowledge based on previous ideas, knowledge and experience. The student is no longer a passive recipient of information, but the main actor in learning. The integration of constructivist ideas into museum education is slow, but not unnoticeable. According to George Hein, there is no purely constructivist museum yet. Nevertheless, in many modern world museums, constructivist elements are evident, especially in specific educational programs, but also in the exhibitions themselves, using modern scenographic design. To illustrate the practical application of the constructivist concept of museum education, the paper presents in an analytical-descriptive way the specifics of two educational programs implemented for school groups of approximately the same age category in selected German so-called new industrial museums – LWL Industriemuseum Textilwerk Bocholt and LVR Industriemuseum Zinkfabrik Oberhausen.