ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2026.05.003
Practical Exploration of a Miniature Museum Curriculum for Kindergartens Based on Local Resources
Weilin Hao1, Yanling Sun2, Chen Fu1,3,*, Xiaoyue Hu4, Jie Ma5
1School of Education, Taiyuan Normal University, Jinzhong 030619, Shanxi, China.
2Hejin City Second Kindergarten, Yuncheng 043300, Shanxi, China.
3School of Education, Shandong Women's University, Jinan 250300, Shandong, China.
4School of Education, Jilin International Studies University, Changchun 130117, Jilin, China.
5Chunhui Kindergarten, Jinan High-Tech Zone, Jinan 250000, Shandong, China.
*Corresponding author: Chen Fu
Shanxi Provincial Educational Science Planning Project “Research on the Development of Kindergarten-Based Curriculum Based on the Concept of Life and Practice” (Project number: YJ-2025058); Jilin Provincial Research Association for Primary and Secondary School Education, 2025 Special Project for College Students: “Research on the Construction and Application of an AI Learning Literacy System for Kindergarten Teachers Empowered by Digital Intelligence” (Project number: GHKT2025-0061).
Published: May 12, 2026
Abstract
The early childhood education of the 15th Five-Year Plan period put forward a curriculum based on children’s daily life and the combination of local resources. However, the combination of local resources in the curriculum of kindergartens is still often superficial and formal. Thus, taking Hejin City Second Kindergarten in Hejin City, Shanxi Province as an example, this paper tries to investigate the process of children learning a micro-museum curriculum based on local resources. Research results indicate that the process of children learning a micro-museum curriculum based on local resources can be divided into three stages, which are curiosity, exploration, and expression. Curiosity is the entry point where the spontaneous, real-life questions of children are the seeds of inquiry. The paper finds that micro-museum curricula based on local resources are effective at sparking young children’s interest in inquiry, supporting holistic development across a variety of developmental domains, and aiding in the preservation and innovation of local culture.
Keyword
Local resources; micro-museum; children’s learning; kindergarten
References
Brajčić, M., & Kuščević, D. (2022). Museum as a place of informal learning. Revija za Elementarno Izobraževanje, 15(Special Issue), 27-40.
https://doi.org/10.18690/rei.15.spec.iss.27-40.2022
Chen, F., Hu, X., Lv, X., Song, L., & Bi, X. (2025). Research on the inquiry-based curriculum system in kindergartens from the perspective of deep learning: Connotation, evolution, and pathways. The Educational Review, USA, 9(5), 558-562.
https://doi.org/10.26855/er.2025.05.012
Kudykina, N., & Savchenko, Y. V. (2022). Special features of museum pedagogy as an innovation activity in preschool education institutions. Scientific Notes of Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1(23), 47-54.
https://doi.org/10.51707/2618-0529-2022-23-06
Lin, J., Hsiao, K. H., & Lichun, L. (2019). The role of museum to promote STEM education and teacher interdisciplinary training: Introducing the experience of National Science and Technology Museum. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Innovative Computing (pp. 171-174).
https://doi.org/10.35745/icice2018v2.043
Nguyen, S. P., & McDermott, C. (2023). Holding multiple category representations: The role of age, theory of mind, and rule switching in children’s developing cross-classification abilities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 237, Article 105716.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105716
Ozyilmaz Akamca, G., Gunseli Yildirim, R., & Murat Ellez, A. (2017). An alternative educational method in early childhood: Museum education. Educational Research and Reviews, 12(14), 688-694.
https://doi.org/10.5897/err2017.3145
Sobel, D. M., Stricker, L. W., & Weisberg, D. S. (2022). Relations between children’s exploration in a children’s museum and their reflections about their exploration. Child Development, 93(6), 1804-1818.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13821
Xue, Z. (2023). Exploring Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development in pedagogy: A critique of a learning event in the business/economics classroom. International Journal of Education and Humanities, 9(3), 166-168.
https://doi.org/10.54097/ijeh.v9i3.10506
Copyright
© 2026 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
How to cite this paper
Practical Exploration of a Miniature Museum Curriculum for Kindergartens Based on Local Resources
How to cite this paper: Weilin Hao, Yanling Sun, Chen Fu, Xiaoyue Hu, Jie Ma. (2026). Practical Exploration of a Miniature Museum Curriculum for Kindergartens Based on Local Resources. The Educational Review, USA, 10(5), 275-279.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2026.05.003