The pertinence of museums and how they educate students are central to any discussion of their educational role, function and effectiveness. The University of Western Ontario has been exploring how best to integrate museum education into the training and professional development of student history teachers in the context of the ‘Ontario, Canadian and World Studies’ curriculum. Students have experienced two widely contrasting museums in the City of London [Ontario], the Jury Museum and the Royal Canadian Regimental museum. The two museums reflect diametrically contrasting cultural, social and community orientations and interests. The Jury Museum is based upon the Jury family’s private collection of anthropological and archaeological artifacts that encapsulates an interest in local heritage that extends from prehistoric times. In contrast, the Royal Canadian Regimental museum reflects the institutional and collective identity of an organization with a clear identity, role and purpose embodied in an historical continuum. The paper explores the relative educational role and value that these two museums can play in terms of the wider educational agenda: both substantively in terms of knowledge transfer and syntactically vis a vis educational

experience and learning.