Bringing the gap between school and out-of-school learning environments

Nowadays the rapid development of science and technology and the introduction of a variety of scientific innovations into citizens’ everyday life makes it necessary to use all the available resources of society for the achievement of scientific literacy. Despite the dominant idea that only schools are responsible for addressing the scientific knowledge, the reality is that schools cannot act alone, and society must better understand and take advantage of the full range of science learning experiences to improve science education broadly. Therefore, it is necessary to exploit all the resources that can provide science-related learning experiences in order to improve science education. Such resources can be informal education environments such as science museums, science centers and research centers. The link between these environments and the school is mentioned in the literature that it has a significant educational value as it provides students with pleasure and interest, contributes to positive attitudes towards science and gives stimuli for further engagement of students in science. However, the problem that arises today is related to the fact that informal education acts like an independent network not associated with formal education. The research project takes into account the above findings of the field of science education which highlight the need to improve educational processes through the connection of formal and informal learning environments. The aim is to develop guidelines for the cooperation of school and out-ofschool contexts in order to achieve the utmost educational benefits for students by bridging the needs and requirements of both teachers and students as well as heads’ of informal education environments.