Education and Public ProgramsEducation has traditionally been associated with the teaching of skills and understanding. The emphasis has now been turned around and the focus is on learning through the processes of enquiry and discovery. Education is not just for school groups. Although the word education has traditionally been associated with formal teaching, practical education does not begin and end in a classroom. Learning is now seen as a lifelong process rather than an end-product, a process that takes many forms, both formal and informal where the learner is seen as an active maker of his or her own learning experiences. In this view, the role of the teacher/educator is to facilitate the process by providing structures to support learning. Ways of learning People learn in different ways. Certain methods suit some people better than others. Most people learn effectively through printed or spoken language. This is the traditional classroom method and is called ‘verbal learning’. Others do not respond well to language and need to use more direct experiences or different senses like sight and touch to comprehend how things work. They may need a more active involvement, perhaps even direct handling of objects to gain an understanding. These methods are called ‘non-verbal learning’. People who are non-verbal learners have often had learning difficulties in a formal classroom environment. Think of the old proverb, “what you hear you will forget, what you see you will remember, what you do, you know”. The museum is an ideal place to learn by doing! The Museum learning environment Gaynor Kavanagh states in History Curatorship (1990, p.153), “the museum is beginning to be seen as a workshop where people can move and think at their own pace, engaging with the museum through displays, publications and performances. It is also a place for the formal and informal transmission of skills, ideas and narratives through organised educational activities.” The museum is a unique learning environment that is quite different from the classroom. It is: Voluntary - Visiting museums is something families do in leisure time and holidays. At the same time visitors anticipate that time spent in a museum will be educational. Informal - It is an informal learning environment where learning can be self directed or guided by dominant people in a group - eg parents in a family group. Does this mean that it is always unstructured? In fact, its very informality means that careful structuring of programs is important in achieving learning goals. Multi-layered and diverse museum audiences include: casual or independent visitors who may come in families or groups. While they may not pre-plan the visit, or have defined learning goals, each of these people has a range of individual interests and a specific capacity for learning. groups who have defined goals and require more structured programs. The same programs will not be appropriate for a group of primary school children and a bus load of senior citizens. This means that the museum needs to offer diverse programs to meet varying needs. People will learn different things from an exhibition according to their experience and knowledge. Because the museum is based on collections of concrete objects rather than texts it offers unique opportunities for developing a range of programs which use varying materials and approaches to suit verbal and non-verbal learners alike. Learning Programs Passive information services response to enquiries on front desk and phone publications, including catalogues, school kits, teachers’ notes and worksheets Service Based on other Museum Activities Orientation The person on the front desk should welcome visitors and be able to direct them to specific displays and programs, to toilets and a place to sit down. If this is not possible information leaflets should be freely available. Exhibitions including traditional static displays with interpretive labels, displays of machinery in working order, interactive displays, discovery rooms. Guided Tours Volunteer guides should develop good communication skills and present the collections in an informative and interesting way. Tours can range from highlights of the collection, leaving the visitors to browse at leisure afterwards, to a special exhibition or an overview of the whole museum. Special Activities including school holiday programs can be based on: Exhibitions - a special exhibition of paintings may lead to an art class or an art workshop. It may lead to stained glass or sculpture; Experts from outside the museum - e.g. for a program on minerals, a competent jeweller might give a talk on cutting and mounting gemstones; Your local library, particularly the children's activity sections, can provide useful ideas which can be adapted to help interpret exhibits; The needs of family groups. Direct Teaching Services While specific learning programs should be based on museum collections and displays, experiential learning programs that involve visitors in different ways can offer educational potential and enormous visitor enjoyment. Handling Sessions Handling objects is a potent learning tool. Duplicate objects can be used for a teaching collection so that the primary object remains protected. It is much more meaningful for people to be able to put their hands on a slab of marble to feel how cool it is, than to tell them that pastry cooks like to work on marble to keep the pastry cool. Handling sessions are particularly important for sight-impaired visitors. Lectures and Talks Visiting speakers can enrich Museum programs. Talks (lectures) can be 'one-off' events or may form a series of three or four sessions. Audio-visual programs While you may not have the resources to develop complex interactive programs slides, film and video are useful and may be used complement talks and other programs. Maintenance of equipment needs to be considered. Workshops, Demonstrations and Practical classes An engine sitting idle in a museum may be of interest to an expert but one that is pulsating with steam demonstrates enormous power, noise and smell which cannot be communicated in any other way. Musical instruments and early phonographs come to life when they are played. Winding up a phonograph, putting in a new needle and turning the record will all be new experiences to a young audience. Nothing enlivens a museum experience more than things that can be seen working. Concerts, Theatre, Dramatisations, Role Plays, Living History Dramatisations also bring collections to life. Children enjoy dressing up and role playing e.g., a short play about life 150 years ago in which certain of the more robust items from the collection are used. Historic house museums are the easiest to use in the context but plays can be adapted for use in historical museums. At some museums students are able to bake scones and to make old fashioned lemonade to drink with the scones. Music and dance are a natural extension of some exhibitions. It is important to remember that everything you undertake should tie in with your museum’s mission statement. While planning education programs, keep in mind that links to school curriculum will be required to get those school groups through your doors! Make your program activities enjoyable, relevant and achievable. Be creative in your approach to planning and conducting education and public programs. A different way of looking at how your museum can connect with its many diverse audiences gives you the potential to reach new, untapped markets and broaden your horizons! References and further reading: Black, G. (2005) The Engaging Museum: Developing Museums for Visitor Involvement Routledge Bridal, T. (2004) Exploring Museum Theatre. AltaMira Press Hein, G. (1998) Learning in the Museum Routledge Kavanagh, G. (1990) History Curatorship Leicester University Press Museum and Gallery Services Queensland ‘How to implement high quality multi visit programs for young children in museum settings’