Historically, a museum was a scat or shrine to the muses, those nine who inspire art and science, history, poetry, dance, and song. The muses are the guides to creativity, to the joy of learning, and to discovery. As museum educators and docents we have a similar role in our …
A number of years ago, one of my sixth grade students asked me, “Mrs. Littleton, don’t you get tired of being in the sixth grade forever?” I was able to answer, quite truthfully, “No, I love being in the sixth grade because it’s different every year.” Some of the ways …
Over the years, I have sought resources that would help docents and other educators understand more fully the positive impact of teaching through direct, personal experience. I hoped to find something that demonstrated how much more compelling that method of teaching is than is the technique of lecturing. Though some …
Here’s an old trick that’s worth repeating. Interlace the fingers of your two hands. Look and see which hand’s thumb is on top. Now, unlace your fingers and interlace them again, but this time place the opposite thumb on the top. How does it feel? If you find it “awkward,” …
The very idea of being evaluated seems to create anxiety among members of a decent corps. It is especially uncomfortable when evaluation is perceived as a judgmental process. The challenge, then, is to create a method that defuses these concerns and provides docents with a useful and positive tool with …
To successfully implement inquiry teaching, docents must master the skills of communication. They must be particularly sensitive to how their words will be received and understood, and acutely aware of the intentions and meanings of words used by their visitors. Though the goal of an inquiry lesson is determined in …
Would tour guides like it if a group of just-toured visitors slipped onto their knees and exclaimed, with tears pouring from their eyes, that the tour was the best, most life-altering experience they had ever had? Of course! While that may be pushing the envelope, tour guides do want our …
Object-based activities are teaching strategies designed to shift visitors from the passive repose of listening into the active postures of seeking, finding, and/or responding. Object-based activities are employed to encourage learners (visitors) to make discoveries on their own. Because these activities must enfranchise all learners present, regardless of their diverse …
By nature, we are tactile creatures. People want to touch, hold, or feel what they look at. Tactile experiences add another dimension to the learning experience. They help the learner form a mental image of an object and provide another route toward understanding what an object represents. Adding a tactile …
The Early American Museum is a historical museum in East Central Illinois that focuses on life in the 19th century. Our education program is largely centered around central Illinois’ farm life in the 1800’s and currently serves about 5,000 children throughout the year, encompassing public, private, and home schools. The …
One of the definitions of demonstration is “clear proof,” as in “clear proof of ability.” For docents seeking to improve their teaching technique, clear proofs of ability abound. Some are intentional —demonstrations offered by institutions to help staff and volunteers provide better tours and educational programs for the public. Other …
We are all creatures of habit, and change does not come easily for many of us. Like their colleagues at so many institutions, docents at the Freer and Sackler Gallery are primarily responsible for giving tours of our art collections to the public. But, often, museums want volunteers to give …
Storytelling is a powerful tool. It is not just entertainment, but an instrument of great value. It is the oldest form of communication. It has no geographic boundaries. It is a way we understand and a natural way to motivate learning. Story can be the basis of good interpretation. While …
Imagine — a visitor stares blankly at a guide, alternately tuning in and out of attention. A group follows a guide around the site from stop to stop, never talking, only listening. These behaviors are not signs of an attentive audience having a positive experience. And yet, we have all …
After years of conducting tours for high school students, the docents and education staff at the Montana Historical Society realized that something was missing. Secondary students responded well to the inquiry method we used, but their need to explore on their own wasn’t being met. A docent and staff brainstorming …
People remember a mere 7% of what they hear. Huh? Yes, you read correctly. A mere seven percent of the substance of what you say will be retained by an audience. What then is remembered? In The Magic of Rapport: How You Can Gain Persona/ Power in Any Situation, Jerry …
After two and a half years of anticipation our “house museum” was ready to open. It was with enthusiasm that I joined my fellow docents on an orientation tour. We were all excited — our training was about to begin! As we entered the large entrance hall, many exclamations of …
The first grade teacher stands in a classroom filled with busy children. It is time for them to stop their individual activities and rejoin her for a group story. She claps her hands three times as she sings, “One, two, three. Look at me.” The children immediately look in her …
There are people who believe that teaching is simple — just learn the subject matter and then tell others about it. But, they are mistaken. The gulf is wide between telling what you’ve learned and helping others to learn. Think about it — if effective teaching is really as easy …
Experiential learning is a natural for science museums, where material can be manipulated to find answers. But what about art museums, where the pieces are often fragile, displayed in glass cases, and surrounded by “Do not touch” signs? Docents at the Asian Art Museum (AAM) of San Francisco, eager to …
When I was growing up, I was lucky enough to have parents willing to travel all over the United States with four children in a car without air conditioning, exposing us to the wonders of this beautiful country. During those travels, our family visited many National parks and hundreds of …
Volunteers are drawn to museums in whose subject matter or mission they are interested. For docents this is especially true, since they not only learn while they volunteer, they share their passion for the subject with visitors. The Desert Botanical Garden, which features desert plants from around the world, draws …
Okay, so we weren’t exactly a typical tour group. Most of us on the tour of the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) and the Prado in Madrid were teachers. Some were high school art teachers, others taught history, and all had some facility with the Spanish language. We had done our …
Art museums are places where people talk about art. The more we can encourage young people on school tours to talk about art, the more they will notice and the more they will remember. In addition, the more they become comfortable talking about the design and meaning of works of …
As a docent program grows, how can changes in training and touring, expectations be incorporated without confusion or conflict? How can a docent program effectively clarify docent responsibilities and privileges and at the same time avoid misconceptions? If there are changes in staff, as well as changes in docent and …
Any good realtor will tell you, “The key to success is location, location, location.” A good teacher understands that the key to success in the classroom is “flexibility, flexibility, flexibility.” Flexibility, however, is only possible with a good written plan undergirding the lesson. If you don’t have a plan, you …
During the early 1960’s, a revolution took hold of museums and other similar institutions. It was propelled when Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, the Mona Lisa, was brought from France to New York and displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Suddenly, thousands of people, many of whom had rarely visited …
The Plains Indian is one of a complex of four museums housed within the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. It is a popular attraction for school children who sometimes travel hundreds of miles to see the things they read about while studying Wyoming and U.S. history. Children of …
There’s an old adage in education that you shouldn’t smile until Christmas. I’ve never been able to make it work. I couldn’t stand to go that long without a laugh! Every now and then, however, my class and I visit a museum where this rule is alive and well. We’re greeted …
It is said, “when you have a question, ask an expert.” And that’s just what I do when I want to know how to design tours to accommodate people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So let me introduce you to two experts — in matters both of museums …
Minority cultures recognize disrespect, for they encounter it often. It is fairly easy for the museum, representing as it so often does the values of the dominant culture, to slip into unintentional disrespect for other cultures. But it is also fairly easy to communicate respect. When exhibiting material aspects of …
Planning effective tours for school groups depends on your awareness of the gradual changes in children as they acquire mature observation and language skills. The following are some guidelines gleaned from the research findings and practical experiences of various sources, such as Howard Gardner and Michael Parsons. You should be …
The joke on the first day of theater class is to tell a novice actor to “just walk naturally” across the stage, and then to watch. Suddenly, the innate skills of movement and coordination become jumbled into a series of labored and self-conscious gestures. The humor comes, of course, from …
At the Tempe Historical Museum, we do not expect our tours to be based on memorization and recitation of exactly the same information each time. Instead, docents are encouraged to vary their tours within defined parameters so that their lessons are interesting to, and appropriate for, the particular groups they …
The image of a draft horse comes to mind when I think of the role transitions play in a tour. They do a great deal of the work, even though their content may not appear to be extraordinary. Transitions pull the tour along, providing continuity as new examples are presented …
Struggling to prepare the appropriate introduction for your tour — one that establishes both the topic and purpose of the lesson? Where do you begin? How do you begin? To be effective, an introduction should tell visitors what they are about to learn in a manner that prepares them to …
This issue of The Docent Educator examines introductions, transitions, and conclusions — three of the most important structural elements of any lesson. Along with content, these structural elements determine and direct every guided learning experience. When poorly conceived or implemented, introductions, transitions, and conclusions can defeat the most well intentioned …
Can we talk? Some of my teaching colleagues have only two requirements for a successful field trip — their kids don’t embarrass them and nothing (animal, vegetable, or mineral) gets broken. Some of the docents in your museum also have only two requirements for a successful tour— the class gets …
It’s September. Teachers throughout North America stand in the midst of an assortment of strangers. During the ensuing nine months, good teachers will uncover the unique needs of each of these strangers in order to facilitate learning. They will rely on experience and training as well as fat file folders …
You are giving a tour and a visitor poses a question you can’t answer. The question intrigues you. What do you do? Do you go home and find the topic in the encyclopedia? Dig through old textbooks? Go to the bookstore and buy several new books? Depending on the kind …
Phillip stands on a chair, ready to drop his paper-and-paperclip helicopter from the two-meter mark on the door frame. His partner, stop-watch in hand, counts off a “ready, set, go!” Vanessa and Melanie are rummaging through a scrap box looking for heavier paper to construct their second helicopter, while Jeremy and …
Communication skills usually focus on presentation — delivering messages clearly, establishing rapport, making eye contact, speaking clearly, projecting well, and otherwise being a good speaker. It is also important, however, to expand consideration to include another communication role for museum presenters, that of listener. The following suggests ways in which …
Throughout history, storytellers have fulfilled roles as their community’s historians, spiritual counselors, educators, and entertainers. They engaged community members in thoughtful consideration of life–enabling them to laugh at their foibles, learn from the past, and make judicious decisions for the future. The settings for traditional storytelling varied from intimate gatherings …
“What’s wrong with telling visitors that this is an excellent example of naturalist painting and reveals the artist’s command of color, light, and the reflective properties of water?’ Everything I’ve said is correct.” Docents are often puzzled to learn that communicating in this manner may be counterproductive. After all, the …