Learning beyond the classroom: students’ attitudes towards the integration of CLIL and museum-based pedagogies

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades, several studies have reported on the benefits of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on students’ affective and cognitive gains. These studies, however, have mainly concentrated on the implementation of CLIL within the formal (school) context, with very little research on its impact in non-formal (out-of-school) contexts. Thus, the present article addresses this gap by describing an action research project aimed at understanding secondary school students’ attitudes towards the integration of CLIL and museum-based pedagogies. The project involved 284 students (14–16 years old) in northern Italy, who participated in a CLIL museum visit on Animal Classification through English at the Natural History Museum in Venice. A mixed-method research design was implemented and data was collected through students’ questionnaires and focus groups. Results reveal that students showed very positive attitudes towards taking part in a CLIL museum visit based on the interaction among the following dimensions: engagement with museum objects, use of English beyond the classroom, methodology and students’ interests, self-concept and career plans.

KEYWORDS:

• Out-of-school
• cross-curricular
• non-formal language learning
• CLIL
• science museum
• students’ attitudes

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

We wish to express all our gratitude to the Foundation Civic Museums of Venice, specifically to the Natural History Museum of Venice, and to our partner school for the ongoing support during the entire duration of the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fabiana Fazzi holds a Ph.D. in Science of Language and is currently a post-doc researcher at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice (Italy). Her research revolves around non-formal language learning and teaching, specifically in the museum context, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), and multiliteracies in the Digital Age. She has worked as an out-of-school facilitator in three countries – UK, Turkey, and Italy – and is currently involved in educational consulting/training and teaching in both secondary schools and university.

David Lasagabaster is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain. His research revolves around EMI (English-Medium Instruction), CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), attitudes and motivation, and multilingualism. He has published widely in international journals (Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, The Modern Language Journal, Studies in Higher Education, Language Teaching Research, Language and Education, TESOL Quarterly, etc.), books and edited books. Among others, he has co-edited ‘English-medium Instruction at Universities: Global Challenges’ (Multilingual Matters, 2013) and ‘Motivation and Foreign Language Learning: From Theory to Practice’ (John Benjamins, 2014).

Notes

1 When talking about museum based-pedagogies, we refer to the array of approaches, strategies, and tools used to promote learning about or through tangible and intangible museum objects. Museum based-pedagogies differ from classroom based-teaching inasmuch museum learning results from the combination of factors which pertain to the different dimensions – personal, sociocultural, physical, and instructional - that are specific to the museum context (see the Contextual Model of Learning by Falk and Dierking 2000).

2 Following the Reform in 2003, the Italian high secondary school system is currently structured in: Lycée system (Licei), technical schools (istituti tecnici), and vocational schools (istituti professionali). The Licei are generally directed at students aged 14 to 19, and are divided in sub-types with different curricula and specializations: liceo artistico specialises in arts (i.e. fine arts, design, sculpture), liceo linguistico specialises in languages (i.e. foreign languages, cultures and literatures), liceo scientifico specialises in sciences (i.e. biology, chemistry, physics and math) (for a full description see INDIRE and MIUR 2014).

3 The notion of “self-concept” refers to the “cognitive appraisals of attributes about ourselves” (Hattie 2014, 10). Self-conceptions can be either confirmed or changed on the basis of the evidence that individuals collect in their daily life (see Hattie 2014 for a more in depth discussion of the psychological dimensions underpinning this notion).