Educational model

At Technorama, science is communicated in a way that focuses on competences and resources. This competence-based model follows a “constructivist learning” approach, whereby knowledge cannot be transferred from one person to another but instead needs to be constructed anew by the learner him or herself.

Technorama’s whole educational approach, in fact, is based on constructivist theories of learning. This approach is present throughout its exhibitions. A successful exhibit therefore offers the individual visitor a variety of routes to learning about a phenomenon in a self-determined way. The person first connects with his or her prior knowledge and experience in order to then expand personal competence by means of action, observation and reflection. Learning is an active process of construction, in the course of which the learner creates a personal representation of the world.

At Technorama, this means that learning never involves simply observing and being amazed about natural phenomena. Instead, playful hands-on interaction facilitates the development of an idea, a notion or even just a feeling for the underlying laws of nature. In the next stage, the learner either confirms or refutes the hypothesis through a process of testing and trial. This leads to an initial recognition and understanding of what the phenomenon really involves.

The exhibits at Technorama primarily consist of reproducible events associated with natural phenomena that allow the individual visitor to undergo a personal set of experiences. These experiences fall into four categories. They include the experience of self-efficacy, the experience of contemplation, the experience of transfer effects, and finally the experience of a research-oriented mindset.