Demircioğlu, İ. H. (2008). History Teachers’ Attitudes to Museum Visits, Teaching History Journal, September, p. 24-30 History Teachers’ Attitudes towards Museum Visits: a Turkish perspective * Ismail H. Demircioglu Fatih Faculty of Education, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey, Demircioglu61@yahoo.com , Telephone: + 90-462-248 23 05 \ Ext.1169, Fax: +90 462- 248 73 44 Museum visits are important for developing students’ knowledge, attitudes and skills in the discipline of history. For this reason, history teachers must know how to plan and manage these activities effectively. However, it has been claimed that some Turkish history teachers have insufficient knowledge and competence in the teaching of history and do not know how to conduct an efficient museum visit. It is thought that conducting a research project to investigate history teachers’ attitudes in connection with using museums would be useful, and this article aims to do just that. The research was carried out in the East Black Sea region of Turkey in 2005, and one hundred and forty history teachers joined the study. A qualitative approach was implemented in this research, by way of a secured-data questionnaire containing five open-ended questions, along with a semi-structured interview. In light of the data gathered, it does seem that the majority of history teachers in Turkey do not have sufficient education, knowledge and competence to enable them to conduct effective museum visits. Key Words: The teaching of history, history teachers, teacher competence, teacher attitudes, museum visit INTRODUCTION Museums are places where visitors can enjoy an incredible range of experiences (Hein, 1998), and they are a principle source of information about the social, economic, cultural and scientific pasts of societies, through the exhibition and accommodation of a variety of portable artifacts. As clearly defined by Maccario (2002), museums can be divided into five categories: science, art, technology, history and nature museums. Museums provide students with the opportunity for effective learning experiences through participation in problem solving, discussing, analysing, comparing, synthesising and evaluating activities, all of which are used for different educational purposes. The use of museums is also very important in developing students’ knowledge, attitudes, skills and understanding as to the nature of history. Besides this, teachers can help their students develop higher order thinking skills, through the active teaching strategies used in these places. Through the employment of effective museum pedagogy, museums become enjoyable and beneficial places for students. As a consequence of this modern approach, students in history courses can gain various skills from museum visits, some of which include problem solving, critical thinking, analytical thinking, consciousness of the need for protecting historical artifacts, awareness of * This article describes the early stages of a funded Project, namely history teachers’ perceptions about museum visits in the Black Sea region of Turkey supported by Karadeniz Technical University.