Study On The Collaboration Between Museums And Public Schools In Educational Activities

Museums have been mushrooming in China these years and more and more of them have offered free access. As part of public educational institutions, museums should take initiative in organizing educational activities. Among others, collaboration with primary, middle and high schools ought to be a very important part of its social educational responsibility and many museums have taken an active part in it these years. The author of this essay has been showing a strong interest in this sort of collaboration; therefore, it becomes the main concern in the author’s mind when he tries to elaborate on the educational function of museums in this essay.After dwelling on the related theory and the latest research on the educational function of museums in China, the author dedicates most part of the article to the collaboration between museums and primary, middle and high schools, particularly that between Shanghai Museum and some of the primary, middle and high schools in the city, as he has spent about a year researching and participating in the collaboration mentioned above, which offers the necessary experiences and inspiration for writing this essay.The last part of the essay reveals the author’s reflection on the problems and challenges many big and influential museums in China are facing when they make efforts to realize their public education goals as well as his proposals for the improvement of the work.