Let me be very clear: I do not consider myself a museum educator. That said, what I do have is many years worth of experience leading, developing, and evaluating museum education programs. I also have a degree in museum interpretation, which is certainly related to learning in museums, though not strictly curriculum based. I consider myself to be a museum curator with an excellent grasp on the many facets that interlink to create great, engaging museum content.
There are lots of different types of museum education programs out there. Some are rigidly scripted, others are more free-form. I've had experience delivering both and the spectrum in between. There are multiple ways to teach in a museum setting, just as there are multiple kinds of learning styles. Some work better than others, depending on the subject, age-level, or venue. The point of this post is not to judge.
Recently, I've had occasion to think about museum education as I have been developing brand new outreach programming for the Secrets of Radar Museum. At one time, the Museum actively courted school groups as visitors, participating in local programs to drive in attendance. I think it's safe to say that, as a niche museum, somewhat off the beaten path, it was never overwhelmed by the response from regional schools. Having great education programs alone will not bring in the buses. In fact, the buses are one of the biggest obstacles to bringing classes to the Museum. As a small venue, it is logistically challenging to host more than one full-size class at a time. Busing is an expense, and schools naturally want to get their money's worth by making sure field trip buses are filled to capacity. This can mean 50-60 children, or the equivalent of two large classes.
In order to successfully combat the busing challenge, the Museum Board President, Katrina Urban, herself an accomplished museum educator (for real, and whom you should totally check out online), suggested creating Outreach programming for 'Radar' to bring into the classroom. She's had success developing and delivering outreach programming. Outreach is already central to the Museum's public engagement policy, in that we regularly attend and participate in off-site events through presentations, activities, and displays. Why not in education programming?
Together, Katrina and I decided to focus our initial programming push at two grade levels: grade 6 for an introduction to the mechanics of flight, and grade 10 for a focus on local experience in WW2 and Cold War. Both dovetail with the Museum's narrative, with radar being a tool developed initially to locate aerial objects, and the Museum's mandate to share the personal experiences of Canadian radar personnel. Katrina laid out the program model which she found most successful, incorporating a visuals-heavy presentation, hands-on artefact handling, and small group-based exploratory assignments. There are multiple opportunities to discuss and demonstrate, both for the educator and the students. Although the subjects are different for the two outreach programs, the model doesn't change.
Here's the thing about the model we're using: we get that students don't all learn in the same way. We're not cookie-cutter identical at any age, really, but I digress. This model allows students who prefer or benefit from passive receipt of information to do so, as well as those who need to learn through active participation, both non-judgementally. There is also an opportunity for students to work independently and to lead and teach each other, which can be very beneficial for those with social anxieties or problems with authority figures. Using image-heavy presentations is helpful for visual learners for whom pictures are another layer of language, or for those with dyslexia or similar learning challenges. In this model, every child is able to take something away, regardless of how they learn.
The Museum used a grant from the Agape Foundation of London, Ontario to pay for the development of the new programs and materials, and to provide an honorarium to the educators that lead the outreach. Material was distributed through the school boards and posted on the website and, so far, in the program's first month, we've fielded a lot of interest, at least at the grade 6 level, and delivered two programs. My feeling is that at the high school level, the programming will be a hot commodity coming up around Remembrance Day.
I have naturally spent a lot more time with the Ontario Curriculum than I have in a long while, and I've dipped into a number of museum education support materials that have languished on my shelf since completing my MA. While I have never forgotten the intrinsic part education plays in museums, I had begun to look at it in an abstracted, theoretical way, which doesn't actually help me deliver programs to anyone. While there are roles in the museum world that need no exposure to public or education programming, I firmly believe that museum professionals who prepare content for exhibitions and publication should have some understanding of, if not direct experience in, museum education. Even if it means a curator shadows a school tour to observe how students interact, or does a rotation on an outreach event during March Break or a Camp, it's incredibly beneficial to remember that engaged children grow up to be engaged adults and engaged adults become museum supporters.
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