Digital museums and science teaching: a literature review

Abstract

Digital science and technology museums are interactive, immersive environments that maintain artifacts of historical, scientific, cultural, heritage and educational value for society, safeguarding memories for present and future generations. They are spaces for the dissemination of knowledge and important technology that can be configured as a scenario for the (re)construction of knowledge in school spaces. It is in this context that this study is inserted. Aiming to understand how virtual science and technology museums have been used in science teaching practices in basic education, we carried out a Systematic Literature Review seeking to identify the objectives and methodologies of investigations, accessed virtual museums, teaching and learning approaches used in studies and pedagogical practices developed in the school environment. In the chosen databases, initially, 299 works were retrieved. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria and carefully reading the works, only two studies come close to an answer to the research question, highlighting the need for more studies to understand the reasons that lead to the non-use of digital science and technology museums for science education, since many studies point to the potential of these artifacts for this purpose. This result will also help us to delineate pedagogical practices in these environments that contribute to a more meaningful science learning.