近些年,随着博物馆教育功能日益凸显,越来越多的幼儿得以走进博物馆,并逐渐成为重要的观众群体之一。有研究表明,博物馆体验可能对幼儿的学习产生深远的影响,那些参观中的细节会长久地留在他们的记忆中。
儿童的学习方式与成人不同,他们是通过游戏来学习的。在游戏中,孩子们会动用各种感官与实物、空间和周围的人互动,而博物馆的体验式学习正是利用了这一点来提升他们的学习体验。在丰富的动手实践中,孩子们能够接触到新颖多样的展品,并通过与教师、家长在语言和肢体上互动,加深对展品的理解和认知。在这个过程中,成人应作为支持者鼓励孩子表达自己的想法,协助他们探索周围的世界,并通过对话帮助他们构建艺术概念、新词汇和关于实物的背景知识,从而潜移默化地达到在游戏中学习的目的。
如今已有很多研究证明了博物馆学习的价值。那么,在博物馆的教育活动中,哪些要素对于吸引幼儿参与、支持幼儿学习最为重要呢?
澳大利亚墨尔本大学团队基于澳大利亚市中心的一家博物馆设计和实施的两个幼儿教育活动开展了一项研究,运用幼儿教育专业知识来研究早期学习环境中博物馆教育活动的实施方式。最终研究成果揭示了博物馆幼儿教育活动应包含的五个要素,它们分别是:学习展品(Learning Artefacts)、具身学习与教育(Embodied Learning and Teaching)、提问(Asking Questions)、重复(Repetition)和叙事(Narratives)。
学习展品
博物馆拥有独特的教育资源。在博物馆的教育活动中,孩子们能够接触到日常生活中罕见的材料、实物和空间。但要让孩子与展品产生深度连结,讲解时就需要将展品与孩子们现有的知识联系起来,例如使用“恐龙的牙齿和香蕉一样大”“它有一条像长颈鹿一样长的脖子” 或 “这个紫色像李子的颜色”这类表述。讲解过程中使用的语言对孩子来说也是一种学习素材。例如,在认识各种展品时,讲解员会不断使用一些高阶词汇,并将它们与一些简单词汇结合起来,帮助孩子对新单词和新概念的运用方式产生更深一步的理解。例如,当教师将“恐龙骨架上的肉慢慢分解了”描述为“所有湿软的部分都被风雨侵蚀掉了”时,孩子们便能够感受和谈论自己身体中湿软的部分,并明确骨骼、皮肤、肌肉和组织之间的区别。
02
具身学习与教育
具身学习,即幼儿用他们的身体和动作进行体验式学习。在博物馆中,具身学习这种能够调动幼儿多重感官的方式被称作 “探究的催化剂”。例如,在孩子们使用放大镜观察并用双手感受羽毛、岩石和甲虫时,他们便能体会柔软、精致、沉重等概念。可以说,能够“动手”是博物馆教育活动的关键优势,也是儿童学习的核心。相关研究也表明,触觉体验是幼儿参与学习的重要组成部分,伴随着语言讲解、手势等辅助,会有效增强他们对展品概念的理解。此外,本研究也强调了视觉线索对幼儿学习的重要意义,例如观看照片、绘画等,它们可以帮助孩子提前建立对实物的预期,并为一些问题提供背景信息。同时,视觉内容还能为处于非母语环境中的儿童提供便利,这种对儿童个体差异的照顾也需要在设计教育活动时有所考虑。
03
提问
尽管博物馆拥有丰富的文物资源,但这些文物本身并不具有教学的功能。幼儿需要通过与知识丰富的同龄人和成年人互动,逐步建立对周围事物的认知。因此,引导幼儿在博物馆活动中学习的一个重要方式便是向他们提问。随机的问题可以激发幼儿对概念的深入思考,搭建思路框架,提升解决问题的能力。教育活动中提出的问题应当是幼儿需要解决的问题,如鼓励他们寻找线索,询问他们看到了什么,在化石中发现了什么,一个长长的脖子能帮助恐龙做什么等。除了由成人向孩子提问,孩子们自发的问题也至关重要,这些都可以帮助他们不断丰富对概念和抽象观点的理解。
04
重复
重复是博物馆讲解员与幼儿互动的一个显著特征。重复最常发生在引入新词汇时,讲解员会让孩子们复述讲解中出现的新词汇,同时,也会鼓励他们重复同伴给出的回答。比如,当讲解员问孩子们:“有人见过活着的恐龙吗?”一个孩子回答说:“它们已经灭绝了”,此时,讲解员便会鼓励所有孩子们重复“灭绝”这个词。另一种情况是将新词汇嵌入到后续的叙述中。例如,在引入“古生物学家”这个新词后,可以将这个词汇在随后的表述中反复提及。这种即时性的重复对幼儿记忆新词汇非常重要。
05
叙事
通过讲故事,讲解员能够在充满新鲜感的环境中更好地激发幼儿的参与兴趣。但不同的叙事方式也会产生不同的效果。当故事仅存在于背景描述中,没有和展品进行串联和结合时,展品本身便仍是孤立的。在这种情况下,幼儿很难建立起展品相关的概念。但当展品能被一个连贯的叙事串联在一起时,展品之间就有了联系,展品相关的概念也能被生动地讲述出来,孩子们因此能够更好地理解相关的背景知识。此外,幼儿还能参与故事的构建,预测故事的走向,融入自己的想法。
博物馆的教育活动可以利用新颖独特的展品吸引儿童,激发他们的好奇心,提供更广泛的学习机会。但应当注意的是,任何展品都无法替代儿童与成人之间的互动。在儿童进行探索时,成人需要协助他们发现探索内容与现有知识之间的联系,不断加强对相关概念的理解。同时,参观前和参观后的学习也非常重要,比如参观前可以对展览内容进行初步了解,参观后重温展览内容。作为博物馆工作人员,我们需要通过持续不断的实践和教学来建立专业知识库,为儿童提供更富有成效的教育活动。
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