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KAZMUSEUM.KZ - Today, everyone is in an environment of natural, transformed and created material objects. The accelerated process of development and dissemination of knowledge is one of the conditions that require society to preserve such items, which are losing their utilitarian significance. These items are real signs of a passing culture, connecting each of us to our history. Museums have been created for centuries to preserve, study and present them.
At first, museums were limited to such functions as “storing, researching and presenting things of natural and artificial origin that are interesting from the point of view of culture and science”. But the systematic intensification of the process of interaction with society in the development of museums has led to a gradual expansion of the museum's social functions [1, p.12].
The gradual modernization of the activities of a socio-cultural institution determines the change in the role of man in the museum industry. A museum visitor turns from a passive consumer into an active participant in the communication process. On this basis, interactive forms of interaction with museum visitors are becoming most relevant.
Due to the growing importance of cultural development factors, as well as the increasing role of museums in the socio-cultural space of our country, at the beginning of the 21st century, it became necessary to train professional museum personnel. In 2004, a new specialty appeared in the higher education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan — “Museology and Monument Protection”, which later contributed to the active involvement of museum students in the practical activities of a cultural institution. The formation of the museum profession is closely related to the development of the museum's social functions and to the process of differentiating internal museum activities [2, p.36]. According to N.Y. Soykina, current trends in the development of museums, scientific and practical developments in the field of museology have required the development of new approaches to the training of museum personnel, especially for cultural and educational activities that today should take into account the principles and achievements of museum pedagogy, psychology, sociology, and social and cultural skills [3].
Last year, as part of the educational program and discipline “Museum Research”, a team of third-year museum students (MD61R group) specializing in “5B041900 - Museum Studies and Monument Protection” gained practical experience in planning, creating and implementing a museum project presented as a quest for adolescent children.
Today, the quest form is not a completely new phenomenon in museum and pedagogical activities; it is actively used in practice, but it has not yet become the subject of museological reflection. Nevertheless, the informal mandatory features of the quest have already been identified: participants solving logical problems and searching for the necessary information on their own, etc. These features exactly correspond to some of the museum's social tasks, the solution of which helps visitors develop their skills to independently search for information, critically analyze and select the necessary facts, develop communication skills, and organize family leisure activities in the cultural and educational space.
The project proposed a quest called “Museum Code — 1991" for children from 10 to 15 years old at the Almaty Museum, which is part of the Almaty Association of Museums. As part of the project, a route was developed through the entire exhibition space of the museum and the necessary additional materials for its implementation with the possibility of subsequent use.
It is no coincidence that students were chosen as the target audience for the project, as they are the main group of museum visitors. Every year, more and more programs are being introduced into educational institutions to teach children patriotism. However, formal attitudes, which are largely due to the overabundance of these programs and the standardized form of their implementation, suggest that schools cannot fully, due to lack of sufficient material, effectively fostering a patriotic spirit in students. In this case, the museum can become a center of its concentration and a base for educating future generations as proud citizens of their country. The concept of “patriotism” appears in the minds of citizens in parallel with the concept of “independence”. Therefore, the year of independence (1991) is an important factor in the formation of active citizenship and patriotic spirit.
Fostering patriotism is one of the main tasks of the state. The first President of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, constantly focuses on the importance of raising children and developing their high civic and moral qualities in his speeches. Over the years, the following programs and projects have been valid: the State Program for the Patriotic Education of Citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2006-2008), the community of young citizens of the Republic “Zhas Ulan” (2011), “Rukhani Zhangyru” (2017), “Seven Facets of the Great Steppe” (2018). The quest project examines the issue of fostering a patriotic spirit through the prism of historical events and is part of the educational process in the Republic. This quest is not just a way of spending leisure time, but, albeit small, is a contribution to the state. The important thing is not to “educate” but to let children understand the importance of independence and its preservation.
An analysis of the current situation determined the choice of the project's goal: to promote the development of social activity, creative thinking and a sense of patriotism among middle and high school children through organizing a quest in the museum.
First of all, organizing and conducting a quest in a museum has become a practical experience for museum students. In this regard, the following project objectives were set, which corresponded to the stages of project implementation:
1. Organization of students' teamwork;
2. Develop a route and quest tasks;
3. Agree on support and provision of space with the Almaty Museum;
4. Organize and conduct a PR campaign;
5. Launch a pilot quest for the Almaty Museum;
6. Prepare a creative report.
During the preparation process, a team of museum students visited more than 10 non-museum quests, and also got acquainted with similar ones on the Internet, on the basis of which this project was developed. In particular, quest schemes in the format of “find an object and use it”, “verbal puzzles”, “word play”, “play with the environment”, etc. were studied. It should also be noted that this project was adjusted if necessary by G.Sh. Faizullina, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Lecturer at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, during the planning and organization process.
In the process of developing the tasks and the quest route, all the features of the exhibition space were taken into account in order to avoid, first of all, mechanical damage to museum exhibits, as well as for the comfortable movement of participants without interfering with other visitors from visiting the exhibition. Based on studying the Almaty Museum's exposition, the following tasks were drawn up, each of which, step by step, led to the very goal of the quest:
Task number 1 Solve the puzzle (museum hall)
Task No. 2 (“Ancient and Medieval History of Almaty” Hall)
Which tribes inhabited the territory of Almaty in ancient times?
(Four stones were given, each with one letter on it: “c”, “a”, “k”, “and”. The task of the children is to collect the name. Once they did, they could head to the first hall, where they were introduced to animal style.)
Some of the quest tasks revealed the peculiarities of the development of modern society and contributed to the development of some of the skills that children need in our time. For example:
Task number 11. “Almaty in the 20th Century” Hall
Translate the sewn letter lying on the desk, which is an excerpt from Nursultan Nazarbayev's article “Seven Facets of the Great Steppe.”
(Each word in the letter is written in one of three languages: Kazakh, Russian, and English).
Our team, without exaggeration, became a place, when the items of material culture take place. Much has been invented in our region at the moment. In their memory, the steppe inhabitants discovered many innovative techniques to the world, and became a few salushylar inventions that are still used in many parts of the world. Shezhirelers keep a lot of famous facts when the ata-babalar of the Kazakhs has repeatedly radically changed the course of Sayashi and economic history in the vast territories of Eurasia.
One of the most important points on the quest route was the Hall dedicated to December 1986. Accordingly, the task developed for this hall should have been of exceptional importance, as were the December events in the history of the state.
Task number 13 (Hall dedicated to December 1986.)
Study the exhibition carefully. Each participant must name one personal item from participants in the December 1986 events. (Participants received a mirror for the correct answer that was not repeated.)
Take a look in the mirror. And tell me who they see in him? (Approximate answers: yourself, person, etc. The correct answer is: A citizen of his country.)
The total number of tasks was 14, each of which corresponded to the theme of the exhibition halls where certain logical tasks were performed. After developing the route and tasks, the quest was presented to Faizullina G.Sh. and the staff of the Almaty Museum. The pilot quest was conducted by museum students on April 21, 2019 at the Almaty Museum and is included in the list of services provided by the institution. The quest was held in a broader format during the “Night at the Museum” campaign on May 18, 2019, which reached a large number of audiences.
After the project was completed, students and museum staff gained experience in organizing and implementing projects of a similar nature that contribute to strengthening the value attitude towards the museum among participating children. In the future, they may come to the museum and bring their friends.
Thus, today the museum needs to “survive” in a competitive environment, so it needs to be ready for creativity. As a socio-cultural institution, the museum should be open to new ideas from both employees and people from outside. The growing new generation of museum experts has a completely different view of the museum's activities. They see it not just as a “temple of antiquities”, but as a communication platform between the past and the present, where, through new forms of interaction that can transfer knowledge through direct contact with the original, with the audience, they turn it into a unique educational environment.
Kamshat JIYENALIEVA,
graduate student at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University,
Almaty museum guide
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