Abstract:

Today, learning is not restricted with books or classrooms. According to contemporary learning theories, learners must be an active, participate to applications and think about what they apply and transfer them into meaningful outputs, use the language and appear in a social action. Museums are described as classrooms without walls and have been used for educational activities and connecting people with objects since they appeared. Besides exhibiting industrial, technological and artistical objects, museums inform and entertain community with courses and conferences and design special programmes for school groups. That is why; museums are fountains of knowledge and interactive learning because of the experiences that they offer.
Museum education includes using museums as educational environments, multiple learning and experience places through life long learning. Museum education is an attempt to make museums alive institutions which involve self-understanding, sustaining the cultural heritage, associating the past, present and the future meaningfully, understanding and protecting historical, artistical and cultural objects; meeting different cultures, developing inter-cultural understanding and empathy. There is a relation between museum collections and the visitors’ requirements in this process. There is a relation between museum collections and the target group’ requirements and this type of learning is unique and a life long process. In museum education, visitors are in an interaction with objects, it depends on experience and discovery. That is why, the main purpose of this project is making children to use the national and international values being aware of the importance of peace and tolerance and raising awareness that is their rights through peer education in museums. In the direction of this general purpose, there are two different museum education packages for children being prepared. Although they ensample Erzurum and Kars Museums, they can also be adaptated for different museums. Two target cities, Kars and Erzurum are chosen for the application of these packages. Those children who took the first education package and the project team also were a part of the activities in the friendship train in May 2010. The process of the project is assessed in this essay in detail.

Keywords:

Children’s Rights, Children’s Participation, Museum Education, Brand City Action, Peer Education, Educator’s Training.