Facilitating the Understanding of Responsible Research and Innovation Dimensions in Non-formal Education Activities Organized in Museums

Non-formal education activities take generally place outside the formal educational system environments. This kind of education is a flexible one, having particularities of being learner-centred and more contextualized, in strong relation to the activities in which participants are involved. In this respect, museums represent excellent non-formal education environments, where various thematic activities can be undertaken. The present article proposes to analyze the perception related to the importance of the role that non-formal education has by the means of the training activities organized in museums. The activities - even they proposed core-actions specific to Science Education - targeted also on emphasizing the dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation [1], [2], being dedicated to students from primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education. In this respect, it was designed a standard research, of theoretical and empiric type. The theoretical demarche aimed to the level of understanding of the Responsible Research and Innovation dimensions [3], proposing a research hypothesis oriented on the following statement: the more students benefited of teaching experience-based methods and exploratory investigation in non-formal educational environments, the more interest in the research and innovation dimensions is recorded. The empirical research embraced the gathering of the quantitative results, using the method of the structured questionnaire. Subsequently to the results analysis, it was drawn the following conclusion: non-formal education by the means of the activities held in museums is reflected as a learning process that stimulates the students' sensitivity and intellect for Responsible Research and Innovation dimensions. The research was conducted in the FP7 IRRESISTIBLE Project - "Including Responsible Research and Innovation in Cutting Edge Science and Inquiry-based Science Education to Improve Teacher's Ability of Bridging Learning Environments" (http://www.irresistible-project.eu/), that tried to make young people more aware about Responsible Research and Innovation issues and to develop their responsible citizenship [4].