Guiding

Objects from the WA Museum History Department.

Objects from the WA Museum History Department.
Image copyright WA Museum 

Image from 'A behind-the-scenes look at our history collection'.

Guides are an important link between external groups and the museums collection. In general, guides need to be clear about their aims, the special needs of their audience and they need to have a clear plan to use during their tour. The success of an education program may depend largely on the expertise of the guides.

Components of guiding:

  • Greeting – make welcome, establish confidence, put at ease, establish rapport
  • Vocal skills – use of body language, focus on visitors, vary vocal skills to suit situation
  • Hands on experiences
  • Operate as part of the group – create conditions for people to teach themselves
  • Have a good knowledge of the subject matter and be at ease with it
  • Don’t be obsessed with content/fact, instead think of the process
  • Listen to the audience and be aware of reactions, are people being inspired to look at the objects or are they only concentrating on the guide speaking?
  • Be aware that people learn in different ways based on their own experience, background knowledge, emotions and skills. 
  • Learn to use different techniques: story telling, anecdotes, similes, metaphors.

Planning

  • Be prepared!
  • Locate key objects which are to be discussed or viewed during the visit
  • Try to avoid guiding in detail through every aspect of the museum
  • Know your audience and tailor your tour to fit in with their interests or needs
  • Keep group sizes small to make it more manageable
  • When guiding children, in particular, it is useful to demonstrate a point with physical examples
  • Do not rush – let people discover things for themselves
  • Try to vary the method of delivery every 10-15 minutes to help maintain concentration

School visits

  • Develop pre and post visit activities for school groups and ways of incorporating these into the actual visit
  • Have examples of background information for teachers and support material for activities to be run during the visit
  • The content of the tour should be relevant to the curriculum
  • Ensure plenty of variety in the experiences and tasks available for students
  • The material must be within the ability of all students and must be stimulating to all students
  • The learning environment must be stimulating without distractions and should help to make students feel included
  • Make the presentation interactive and pacey, preferably organised so that groups sizes number less than 16.
  • Worksheets can often obstruct students from really seeing and thinking about what is on display if students rush around to fill out forms and then lose interest in the visit. Worksheets that list questions as starting points for discussion are more useful.  Limit the number of questions and encourage students to think on their own.
  • Students need to be familiar with the following teaching methods:
    • Researching – focusing on their own discovery
    • Activities which allow them to explore and encourage further questioning
    • Action based learning and applying knowledge through methods such as discussion, debate, brainstorming, role-play and simulations

Needs of the guide:

  • To be kept involved in what is going on in the museum
  • It is not necessary to have high qualifications in subject areas but instead they require ‘guiding skills’
  • A knowledge of the tourism industry
  • High standards of customer service
  • Different people may prefer working with different age groups – if possible, give guides the opportunity to choose what suits them
  • If people enjoy specialising in one subject area, they will operate more effectively as part of a team presenting small segments to groups
  • Provide in-house workshops or training for old and new staff/guides – it will allow them to get together and discuss methods of presentation
  • It would be beneficial to train guides in techniques which are useful or appropriate to adopt with school children
  • The task of guiding should not be overwhelming.  Stress to guides that they share the responsibilities and limit the time they spend on the job
  • Energetic speakers who interact with people rather than lecturing and who inject a bit of humour into their tour will be very popular and effective