Museum education in visual arts courses of arts education programs at the 5th grade levels of elementary schools

The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of Museum Education inVisual Arts courses of arts education programs at the 5th grade levels of ElementarySchools.The study has been conducted on 5th grade students of Eryaman Housing EstateElementary School, Hasan Ali Yücel Elementary School and Private Tevfik FikretSchools in the 2006 - 2007 educational years. The study utilized the quantitative datacollection method and employed the repeated measures design of the experimentaldesign methods. Data in the study has been obtained by a behavior scale prepared bythe researcher herself. Pre-trial has been made by practice on 90 students, 50 being5th grade students of Eryaman Housing Estate Elementary School and 40 being 5thgrade students of Private Tevfik Fikret Schools during the trial practice of the scalein order to be able to determine the structural validity and reliability of the scale. Todetermine structural validity, Principal Component Analysis Technique has beenemployed with the help of SPSS 15.0 package software. The behavior scale preparedto measure the behaviors of Hasan Ali Yücel Elementary School and Private TevfikFikret Schools 5th grade students participating the study aimed at Museum Educationwithin the scope of Arts Education has been conducted before the MuseumEducation (pre-test) and after the Museum Education (post-test). ?T-test? has beenemployed in the analysis of qualitative data to reveal the differences between theaverages of the scores of Hasan Ali Yücel Elementary School and Private TevfikFikret Schools 5th grade students in the behavior scale.In conclusion, a meaningful difference was found on behalf of Private TevfikFikret Schools between the 5th grade students of Private Tevfik Fikret Schools wherePrivate Tevfik Fikret Schools Visual Arts Program prepared according to theconstructivist teaching approach is in place and 5th grade students of Hasan AliYücel Elementary School where Ministry of National Education Visual ArtsProgram is in place with regards the education scores of Museum Education withinthe scope of Arts Education.Based on the findings obtained in this research, comparing the Visual ArtsProgram of Ministry of National Education and the Program prepared by PrivateTevfik Fikret Schools, it has been concluded that the Program prepared by theMinistry of National Education yielded better results within the scope of MuseumEducation with regards its gains and efficiency, and its content resulted in morepositive behaviors; with recommendations aimed at the conduct of new researches