Abstract
As a history teacher, I struggled to make history lessons engaging and relevant to my students’ lives. In my everyday quest, I experimented with different pedagogies to bring history alive in the classroom and provide a more immersive experience for my students. The paper explores the use of museum objects to create a more immersive learning experience in history classes. Traditionally, textbooks and lectures limited students’ engagement and understanding of history education. By incorporating museum objects into the curriculum, we can cultivate empathy, critical thinking, curiosity, and a stronger connection to history. The paper explores the pedagogical benefits of using museum objects in the classroom. Students can visualize and interact with historical contexts through artifacts from different periods of history. As primary sources in my classroom, historical objects helped my students analyze, interpret, and draw inferences based on evidence, encouraging a deeper understanding of history. Museum objects enabled my students to develop critical thinking skills and better understand the past. Consequently, students learned how to think like historians. Next, the paper provides practical strategies teachers can use to incorporate museum objects into their classrooms. To ensure relevance and contextualization within the topics being studied, teachers can select objects that align with their curriculum. Finally, the paper discusses potential challenges and solutions associated with using museum objects as part of history classes. For instance, virtual museum tours and online resources could address the problem of limited access to physical artifacts.
Presenters
Auranzaib Noor AliAssistant Manager, Research Office, Aga Khan University, Sind (en), Pakistan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
Museum Objects, History Education, Immersive Learning, Critical Thinking
