Implementing Heritage Learning Outcomes (original) (raw)

2014, Implementing Heritage Learning Outcomes

This book is the result of the project “Implementing Heritage Learning Outcomes in the Nordic and Baltic Area” funded by Nordplus Adult. The project started in December 2012 and ended in November 2014. The project was initiated because of the need for cultural heritage institutions to be able to communicate their relevance, to individuals as well as to society. For a long time it has been known among museums and archives that cultural heritage institutions both encourage learning and promote well-being. It is today widely accepted that learning through cultural experiences can develop creative, personal and interpersonal skills which can be essential transferable skills for the working population in a knowledge-based society. Politicians at local, national and Nordic levels have increasingly emphasised that citizens have to keep learning new things throughout their lives in order to develop both new skills and the ability to adapt to new circumstances. This process of lifelong learning is not restricted to the formal educational institutions. If learning is defined as a multi-dimensional process which develops throughout life and can occur in many different places, then museums and archives are by definition places for learning. A question of significance is therefore how these learning activities can be more adequately described and, as a result, more efficiently utilised and assessed by visitors, people in training at the institutions, policy makers, and other stakeholders. Thus, the objective of the project was the development and implementation of the Heritage Learning Outcomes, a method and framework for planning and evaluation of learning at cultural heritage organisations and also a way of communicating the relevance of learning experiences. The partners have been three museums and three archives in the Nordic and Baltic countries; the Helsinki City Museum, in Finland; the Jamtli regional museum, in Sweden; the Open-Air Museum of Lithuania; the National Archives of Iceland; the Aalborg City Archives, in Denmark; and the Regional State Archives in Trondheim, Norway. In addition to this, the Nordic Centre of Heritage Learning and Creativity (NCK), Sweden, has coordinated the project and the Department of Education at Aarhus University, Denmark, has evaluated the method and the project. This book should be seen both as a handbook for the method and as an inspiration. It contains a chapter describing the method, followed by six chapters describing how different museums and archives have used the method in connection to adult learning. The chapters reflect a wide range of approaches to learning and give examples of many engaging projects and programmes which demonstrate the ways in which the Heritage Learning Framework can be used and adapted. The last chapter is a concluding chapter, evaluating the efficiency of the method. With this book, we hope to inspire others to use the method, which we believe is a way of making cultural heritage institutions more relevant to individuals and to society by focusing on the effects and outcomes of learning.