Ceacht: Cuairt staidéir

Heritage is learned through field activities such as thematic visits to heritage sites and museums. To discover the cultural heritage of the Saxons, Southern Transylvania offers numerous cultural routes with authentic historical cultural landscapes (Prejmer, Hărman, Biertan, Mălâncrav, Cărța etc.). This type of learning activity lends itself very well to groups.

Methods used: Discovery learning, explanation, observation, discussion, exemplification.

Aim: To learn about cultural heritage elements attributed to the Transylvanian Saxons.

Objectives

Cognitive

• Enriching knowledge with theoretical elements on the history, culture and civilization of the Transylvanian Saxons.
• Acquire new knowledge about the cultural heritage of the Saxons.
• Understand the importance of protecting and passing on heritage.
• To make use of the information content acquired within and across disciplines (religion, geography, history, civic culture).

Affective-attitudinal

• To show interest in learning about the historical past of the Transylvanian Saxons.
• To respect the contribution of the Saxons to the cultural diversity of our country.

Attitudes

• Cultivating interest in the cultural heritage of the Saxons.
• Awareness of the value of the cultural heritage of the Saxons.
• Cultivating respect for their cultural identity.

Competencies

• Preservation, promotion and protection of the immaterial and material heritage of the Saxons.
• Curiosity for exploring a cultural heritage at risk of extinction.
• Willingness for lifelong learning using the non-formal environment.
• Developing creative thinking to improve the presentation of Saxon heritage objectives for the benefit of pupils and local communities.

Description of the learning activity: Visiting rural communities that were founded by the Saxons has an educational role in the context of discovering previously unknown or little known heritage sites. Saxon communities preserve a material heritage consisting of historic centres, peasant fortresses, churches, ethnographic museums. Visiting heritage sites provides information on:

• who the Saxons are, when and where they came from in Transylvania,
• what the cultural particularities of this social/ethnic group are,
• how they lived,
• what is the cultural heritage they left us.

In this way we manage to link the concept of cultural heritage to those who created it, the Saxons. Most Saxon fortresses have an ethnographic museum. Among the exhibits the visitor can investigate a heritage object in the museum such as: furniture painted in the traditional style (chairs, tables, cabinets, cradles, benches, chest of drawers), folk costumes, musical instruments, numismatics, etc.

This field activity organised in the form of a thematic visit can ensure progress in learning if the target group, especially teachers, organise excursions with students, if they disseminate information on social networks, in professional communities through articles, conferences. The knowledge learnt by teachers during a thematic excursion can also be used in classroom work in an interdisciplinary context (in history, geography, drawing, civics classes).

Thematic visits to these sights can also be exploited by other socio-professional categories, such as business people, experts, the general public who can promote heritage sights for tourism.