University Students' Views on the Efficacy of a Museum’s Historical School Lessons - The Case of Ancient Emona

Aug 23, 2026

Museums today deliver educational activities including simulated historical school lessons, and this study uses the Slovenian School Museum as a representative case, focusing on its “Ancient Emona” programme. A qualitative approach explores university students’ views and reactions (n=19) from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts regarding what they learned through a historical school lesson enactment. An open-ended questionnaire from the 2019/20 academic year evaluates the lesson. Results indicate the museum-based historical lesson functions as an effective, lively, and active educational medium for teaching history of education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Museum education and learning functions

Active versus passive educational forms

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' VIEWS ON THE EFFICACY OF A MUSEUM’S HISTORICAL SCHOOL LESSONS–THE CASE OF ANCIENT EMONA Potrjeno/Accepted 8. 7. 2022 Objavljeno/Published 28. 8. 2022 MONIKA GOVEKAR OKOLIŠ University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia CORRESPONDING AUTHOR/KORESPONDENČNI AVTOR [monika.govekarokolis@ff.uni-lj.si](monika.govekarokolis@ff.uni-lj.si) Keywords: museum education, museum's school lessons Slovenian , School Museum, university students, Ancient Emona Ključne besede: muzejskoizobraževanje, muzejskeučne ure, Slovenski šolski muzej, visokošolski študenti,''Antična Emona'' UDK/UDC [37.011.33:069]:378 Abstract/Izvleček Museums today engage in a range of educational activities, including simulated museum's historical school lessons. The article uses the Slovenian School Museum as an example and describes the education it offers, especially concerning museum's historical school lessons. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the views and reactions of university students (n = 19) from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, concerning what they learned from the enactment of a historical school lesson. An open-ended type of questionnaire was given to participants in the study year 2019/20 and used to evaluate the “Ancient Emona” school lesson. The study's findings show the historical school lesson conducted in the museum to be an effective, living, and active means of education on the history of teaching for university students. Pogledi visokošolskih študentov na učinkovitost muzejske učne ure iz preteklosti – primer ''Antična Emona'' Muzeji se danes ukvarjajo z različnimi izobraževalnimi dejavnostmi, med njimi so tudi simulirane muzejske učne ure iz preteklosti. Članek uporabljakot primer Slovenski šolski muzej in opisuje izobraževanje, ki ga ponuja, posebno pa muzejske učne ure iz preteklosti. Namen kvalitativne raziskave jeraziskati poglede in odzive visokošolskih študentov (n = 19) s Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani, glede tega, kaj so se učili na izbrani učni uri iz preteklosti. Vprašalnik odprtega tipa, ki so ga dobili udeleženci v študijskem letu 2019/20, je bil uporabljen za evalvacijo učne ure “Antična Emona”. Ugotovitve raziskave kažejo, da je učna ura iz preteklosti v muzeju učinkovit,živ in aktiven način izobraževanja o zgodovini poučevanja za visokošolske študente. DOI [https://doi.org/10.18690/rei.15.Spec.Iss.41-58.2022](https://doi.org/10.18690/rei.15.Spec.Iss.41-58.2022)[ ](https://doi.org/10.18690/rei.15.Spec.Iss.41-58.2022)[Besedilo / Text](Besedilo / Text) © [2022 Avtor](2022 Avtor)([ji](ji)) / The Author(s) To delo je objavljeno pod licenco Creative Commons CC BY Priznanje avtorstva 4.0 Mednarodna. Uporabnikom je dovoljeno tako nekomercialno kot tudi komercialno reproduciranje, distribuiranje, dajanje v najem, javna priobčitev in predelava avtorskega dela, pod pogojem, da navedejo avtorjaizvirnega dela. ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)). Introduction Museums are institutions that include history, science, nature, art, and beliefs, in various ways and in varied forms. Today museums fulfil multiple functions, including collecting, documenting, protecting, displaying, and interpreting collections. These are the environments of specialized and complex learning, which are of great importance for both education and the dissemination of knowledge. It is important to emphasize that active education and learning are the basic connecting elements of all museum activities (Leftwich, 2016; Prottas, 2017) . Supporters of the educational role of museums see education as the main goal of museums: i.e., providing educational and aesthetic enrichment. Museums are important educational and cultural institutions (Moussa, 2013; Magnier, 2015), since they engage in distinct forms of education. This includes lifelong learning, which gives visitors an opportunity for further

FAQs

What educational activity does the article focus on?

It focuses on simulated historical museum school lessons, specifically the “Ancient Emona” lesson presented by the Slovenian School Museum.

How was the study conducted?

The study used a qualitative design with an open-ended questionnaire. Participants were university students from the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Arts, surveyed in the 2019/20 academic year.

What do the findings say about the historical school lesson?

The findings show the museum’s historical school lesson is an effective, lively, and active means of education on the history of teaching for university students.

Aug 23, 2026

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