Abstract
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUİK), while in 2010 the total number of museums in Turkey was 334, 185 of which were state and 149 were private, in 2016 the total number reached 417, 193 of which were state and 224 were private. At the same time, the figures of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism show that with the growing number of museums in the country the number of visitors increases significantly. Thus, according to these figures, the number of museum visitors, which was 6.887.344 in 2000, has risen to 28.454.284 as of 2015 with a constant increase. The purpose of the study is to understand, to interpret and evaluate the opinions of museum experts regarding general-ly museums and the educational function, use of the museums in Turkey.
This research was carried out with the participation of 13 museum experts working in private and state museums in different cities of Turkey. The research was designed as qualitative research pattern. Data obtained from the study were acquired through interview, one of the qualitative data collection methods. In the analysis of the data, such ap-proach of the qualitative data analysis as inductive analysis was used. As a result of the research, it was ascertained that particularly private museums have shown an increase in educational activities, but due to the fact that they were visited by teachers, students and museum experts, these visits were not quite productive; and in order to make visits to museums more efficient, it is required to provide preliminary information regarding the museum and its contents. Thus the results, that the Ministry of Education has not been sufficiently collaborating with the museums, have been achieved.