JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM EDUCATION 2023, Vol: 5, Special Issue, 1-15 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/jimuseumed JIMuseumED 2023 JIMuseumED The Development of Archaeologist Candidates' Thoughts on Educational Exhibitions through Museum Experience Seher Selin Özmen Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University ABSTRACT The aim of this research is to improve the thoughts of archaeologist candidates based on theoretical knowledge about educational exhibition techniques through a museum education experience at the Troy Museum. The study was conducted with the participation of 15 volunteer students, 4 female and 11 male, taking the elective courses "Conservation of Archaeological Heritage and Museums" and "Museology II" at Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Archaeology, in the Spring Semester of 2021-2022. The average age of the students was 28. In the research handled within the scope of qualitative research approaches, case study design is used. Semi-structured pre-interview and post-interview forms consisting of 10 open-ended questions were prepared as data collection tools to obtain information about the participants' theoretical knowledge-based thoughts and experience-based thoughts. Individual interviews were conducted and the data obtained were analyzed by content analysis. George E. Hein's constructivist approach and Falk and Dierking's contextual learning model were utilized for the purpose of the study. The data obtained showed that students' thoughts about educational exhibitions were grouped under two main themes: thoughts about the physical environment (space design) and thoughts about the social environment (visitor experience). Ten sub-themes and various codes belonging to these main themes emerged. Before the museum education, students expressed their thoughts in terms of "importance" and "necessity" within the framework of theoretical knowledge, but after the study, they developed their thoughts by expressing them in terms of "what they felt" and "what they experienced in the museum". Keywords: Archaeologist candidates, educational exhibition, museology, Troy Museum Type: Research Article History Received: 10.09.2023 Accepted: 12.10.2023 Published: 29.10.2023 Corresponding Author: Seher Selin ÖZMEN Türkiye on the UNESCO World Heritage List Suggested Citation Özmen, S. S. (2023). The development of archaeologist candidates' thoughts on educational exhibitions through museum experience. Journal of International Museum Education, 5(Special Issue), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.51637/jimuseumed.1357862 About The Author Selin Özmen graduated from Middle East Technical University's English Program in the "History" department in 1997. In 2002, she completed her Master's program in "Museum Studies" at Yıldız Technical University's Institute of Social Sciences with her thesis titled "The Evaluation of Topkapı Palace Museum Costume Collection as a Source in Contemporary Fashion Design." She obtained her Ph.D. degree in 2009 in the Department of Fine Arts Education at Ankara University's Faculty of Educational Sciences with her thesis titled "Evaluation of Museum Education and Practices in the Context of Art Education (Military Museum Example)." Özmen continues her academic research on topics such as Museum Education in the Context of Art Education, Migration Museums, and Propaganda in Museum Exhibitions. She currently serves as the Head of the Department of Protohistory and Near Eastern Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology at Namık Kemal University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in Tekirdağ." E-mail: sozmen@nku.edu.tr, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3847-4466