Wanting to learn more practical and engaging history, many students proactively go to museums across the city as well as participate in media education programmes, thereby learning about the value of cultural heritage and historical events associated with the development of the beloved land.

Students will learn history more effectively when participating in media education programs at the museum. Students are seen learn how to be tour guides at the Museum of Da Nang. Photo: H.V

At the Museum of Da Nang on the weekend, Pham Que Hang, a student majoring in Vietnamese Studies, the University of Education, a member school of the University of Da Nang (UD), observing the artifacts displayed in the stilt house area. Hang said she came to the museum to find information to complete her essay.

Not only does she go to the museum to study subjects, but when she has time, Hang still comes to the museum to absorb knowledge from collections and artifacts from ancient to modern times. Here, Hang can explore cultural values and historical documents, independent architectural works and resistance wars in the past.

According to Hang, the museum ‘revives’ artifacts through archaeological activities or images of stilt houses to help visitors like her learn more about the difficult lives of some households in Nai Hien Dong Ward, Son Tra District before 2000. “Approaching and learning about history through the museum is quite interesting. For me, the museum is an attractive destination, where I can build a sustainable knowledge and cultural foundation for my future career as a tour guide”, Hang said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen Anh, 47, a Fine Arts teacher at the Hong Quang Primary School in Lien Chieu District often takes her daughter Phan Thi Minh Tam to the Da Nang Fine Arts Museum to admire the paintings on display here. Realising that her daughter likes painting, in addition to letting her learn basic skills, she still spend time taking her to the museum to admire the works and documents about artists in the Central Viet Nam and Central Highlands regions as well as international artists.

“Viewing the works directly at the museum helps my daughter have a variety of perspectives as well as a sense of composition to complete beautiful paintings. I make it a habit to regularly bring my children to museums because these places help them, as well as us, can find valuable sources of information, intangible values that are difficult to find in modern life,” said Ms. Anh.

Recently, most museums in the city have promoted communication education programmes and coordinated with schools to bring more students to museums. Mr. Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien, the Director of the Museum of Da Nang said that the programmes ‘Young Guides’, ‘Extracurricular Hours at the Museum’, ‘Online Hours’ for students are built on the sources of information and artifacts currently kept at the museum with the goal of increasing interaction, creating excitement, and helping children easily access information.

“For each programme, the museum builds a separate educational framework close to each related content and event, and the school proactively chooses the cultural space it wants to focus on. Students are free to visit, ask questions and interact with the tour guides through stories related to the cultural space. At the same time, the museum builds documentary films for students to experience a variety of senses. Last year, the museum coordinated with Trung Vuong Secondary School to organise six online lessons for 200 students. In my opinion, the lessons at the museum as well as extracurricular activities help students become more passionate about learning history, educating patriotism and inheriting the tradition of cultural heritage for the future’, said Mr. Thien.

In addition, the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture also organises educational programmes for students such as ‘Discovering with you’, ‘Bringing the museum to school’ or ‘Education topics through academic exchanges’ for students.

Ms. Ha Thi Huyen Anh, the Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Communication, the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, said that the programme at the museum with a learning method combining listening to content, watching image slideshows and memorizing important keywords, asking and answering, participating in games, helps students absorb and remember knowledge more deeply. More importantly, during the learning process, students develop a variety of skills such as teamwork, observation, analysis and the ability to present problems.

Reporting by HUYNH VU - Translating by A.THU