Effect of Museum Education on Teaching Extinct Animals Lived in Anatolia to Pre-School Children

Museums are institutions that house, protect, and exhibit the historical, cultural, natural, etc. values of a society; moreover, they are one of the most significant facilities to be used effectively in education. In museum education, an active learning environment should be created for students that would include not only didactic information but also activities such as visual arts, music, and drama through which they can learn through performing. In this respect, 13 students from the six-year-old age group attending the kindergarten of a public institution were selected as the study group that was provided with a complete 18-session museum education program involving six hours per week for three weeks. The sessions were prepared by two specialists—one in visual arts education and the other in child development. In the study where the mixed model was used, a test model with experimental group from quantitative research methods was formed to measure the effectiveness of the program applied. Qualitative data were also used in the study to support the quantitative data; content and descriptive analyses were used in the analysis of qualitative data. In the analysis, cognitive skills of the study group regarding extinct animals lived in Anatolia were found statistically significant (p <0.0001). The results were discussed and evaluated in light of the literature. Suggestions were made for the researchers studying in museum education based on these results.