Museums provide direct learning experiences. In museums visitors can encounter objects and exhibits from specific times and places, related to concepts and disciplinary subjects in the arts, history, science, and social sciences. A museum is an educational fair. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s recent primary school General Studies curriculum guide recommends learning through museums as an informal learning pathway for all students. This project is an up-to-date exploratory study of why and how Hong Kong primary school teachers and students visit museums educationally and how they perceive those visits and the accompanying learning experiences. A survey study from a sample of five local primary schools, 90 teachers and 415 senior form students, shows that although teachers and students may not visit museums very frequently for academic purposes, they do have a strong interest and motivation to visit more often, attracted by different elements. Students’ learning and interaction with technology, adults and peers, and the museum environment during a visit, as well as the attractiveness of museum content, tend to correlate with their motivations. This has a range of implications which we discuss. This study will be useful for museum experts, educators and the wider public to map meaningful museum education journeys for students. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). All Rights Reserved.

A museum is an educational fair which facilitates individuals to explore and discover through inquiry. Museums provide participants with direct learning experience with objects and exhibits that relate to concepts and disciplinary subjects in the arts, history, science, and social science of specific time and space. Learning through museums is considered as one of the informal learning ways which is very different from formal learning in schools. This study aims to investigate Hong Kong primary school teachers’ and students’ perspectives, learning experiences and motivations in museum learning and visits. A survey study is adopted to gather the views and experiences of a sample of senior primary school students and teachers, in the local primary school context, on museum learning and visits in the past three years. Learners’ actual and preferred visits to museums as well as the types of motivations involved in visiting museums in a Chinese culture and context will be explored. The ways of interactions and various types of museum learning will also be examined, and teachers’ and students’ perspectives will also be compared. This study will provide insights into the enhancement of meaningful museum education journeys for students. Copyright © 2021 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.