Informal and non-formal education: History of science in museums

Abstract

Although a growing number of research articles in recent years have treated the role of informal settings in science learning, the subject of the history of science in museums and its relationship to informal and non-formal education remains less well explored. The aim of this review is to assemble the studies of history of science in science museums and explore the opportunities for the further use of the history of science in science museum education practice. A number of mainly interdisciplinary texts from the fields of science education, history of science, scientific museology and museum education are reviewed. The review shows that the study of the role of history of science in informal and non-formal science education is heterogeneous and fragmentary. It is necessary to raise new research questions and construct new lines of research to investigate the subject in a more systematic way.