College Students’ Views on Museum Learning: A Sustainable Aesthetic Education Perspective

Baoqing Song, Jie Ren (), Xiaohu Wang and Xiang Xie
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Baoqing Song: Arts Education Centre, Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai 519088, China
Jie Ren: Beijing Community Service and Science Society, Beijing 100080, China
Xiaohu Wang: Sino-French Institute, Renmin University of China, Suzhou 215000, China
Xiang Xie: Beijing Community Service and Science Society, Beijing 100080, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Museums are important educational platforms in informal learning environments, offering essential off-campus venues for university-level aesthetic education. Over half of students’ independent off-campus art appreciation activities occur in museums. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to analyse students’ general impressions of museums using the TF-IDF algorithm. Additionally, the specific feelings of university students participating in self-directed museum learning were explored through focus groups, and differences between learning in museums and appreciating other art forms from the students’ perspectives were analysed. The results show that museums provide students with profound cultural and artistic knowledge. Students prefer museums for independent art appreciation because of the freedom, control, and safety offered in that learning process. In terms of interactivity, comprehensiveness, and repeatability, clear differences exist between museum art appreciation and other art disciplines. Overall, museums are important and sustainable off-campus aesthetic educational resources for universities.

Keywords: museum; aesthetic education; higher education; informal learning environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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