Docent Educator, Page 3

While traditional classroom studies primarily call upon deductive reasoning skills (going from generalities and moving to specific examples), learning from art, history, or science collections requires inductive reasoning (looking at specific examples and extrapolating as to generalities). Quite naturally, therefore, teaching within museums, historic sites, zoos, gardens, and other similar …

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 words on the cards offer another dimension to learning how to look at works of art. “The glory of everything.” “Rest from care, my one and only.” “Deep in the dung and the dark.” “They’re fattening you up because they’re going to kill you.” “The night seemed long.” Taking …

Give Me Memphis, Tennessee Going to Memphis, Tennessee? Be sure to check out their many and varied museums, in addition to eating great barbeque and listening to the blues. Among the cultural attractions you might wish to visit are: Center for Southern Folklore 209 Beale Street. Documents the lives and …

Birthday cakes with candles for wishes. A freshly baked loaf of bread to welcome a new neighbor. Thanksgiving feasts and celebratory spreads for bar mitzvahs, christenings, graduations, and weddings. Food is more than nutrition in most cultures, and it is another tool teachers use to motivate and educate their students. …

A shy third grader teeters on shaking legs. She lowers her eves and blushes as she pulls on the thick jacket that simulates whale blubber. Fins are placed on her hands, a tail is strapped on her body, and large eyes are stuck to the sides of her head as …

New docents, also known as docents-in-training, must maneuver around the docent policy manual as deftly as they do around an exhibit or touch cart. But how can you know this? A paper and pencil-type test might indicate which trainees studied the policy manual, but can’t really indicate how they will …

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 …

Docents at the Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia know that an activity called, “Academy Awards” is a sure winner. The docents distribute cards labeled “Best Actor,” Best Actress,” “Best Costumes,” “Best Set Design,” and “Best Screenplay” to individuals or small groups. After the visitors have made their selections …

This story is really about a love affair with maps. I was always interested in maps – – roadmaps, blueprints, shopping mall maps, even fire escape diagrams. I lingered over those cartographic treasures delivered every month in the National Geographic magazine. Interest became passion the day I learned there was …

While all of us experience the physical world through our bodies, people who have strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence tend to use their bodies to express ideas and feelings. These individuals are often talented athletes, dancers, skilled technicians, and actors. Though children who possess this orientation may not be verbally expressive, they …

How does a botanical garden teach specific scientific topics to children when, in most cases, the plantings were designed for beauty rather than education? How can we encourage children to explore and investigate the collection without hurting the plants or themselves? At many museums and botanical gardens, these challenges are …

Games in my institution? You must be joking! Our collection has been researched by scholars, our subject matter is serious and important, our approach is sophisticated, and our demeanor is dignified. Why would we play games in our galleries?” If you’ve perceived similar attitudes at your institution ╤ staff or …

Try this little test: If your slip were showing, would you want someone to tell you? It you had a run in your hose, would you thank the person who pointed it out? It you had spinach between your teeth, would you die if a friend suggested a visit to …

by Jane Anne Young Years ago -the idea of evaluation brought fear and trepidation into the hearts of most docents in the Bayly Art Museum education program. Docents trembled and shook when informed that the chairman of education was going to “watch” their tours. These experiences helped me as director …

Individuals respond differently to evaluations. Some of us use a positive judgment as license to maintain the status quo: the if-I’m-already-good-why-try-to-improve mentality. On the other hand, while some of us may regard a “negative” evaluation as a unique opportunity to learn and to grow, more of us probably react with …

The idea of peer review began after the chair of our education council attended the National Docent Symposium in 1995 and realized that the evaluation of volunteers is happening in many museums. After digging through files from past years, v^^e found that about 10 years ago a task force of …

Evaluating Intelligence Many educational researchers and authorities are seeking to reevaluate what it means to be smart. They are warning that childhood reading and IQ tests measure only a small aspect of the intellect and don’t predict success in later life. Among the apostles of this new approach are Robert …

Right from the start, evaluation played a key role in developing Discovering Local History, a collaborative project of the Webb- Deane-Stevens Museum and the public schools of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Classroom teachers, local journalists and historians, and museum staff worked in an on-going partnership to shape a successful local history program …

How do you know you’ve given a successful tour? Do you wait to take stock until the class has rolled away in a cloud of diesel? No one bumped into the Henry Moore and sent it crashing into pieces? Little fingers didn’t stray and leave prints on the family portraits? …

There are no two ways about it, every educator should be evaluated. Regardless of whether the educator is a paid staff member or a volunteer, the importance of an educator’s responsibilities, and the amount of contact an educator has with students and the general public, require that he or she …

Though some of you actually do work in zoos and nature centers, the rest of us occasionally encounter some real animals, too. While most teachers, group leaders, and classroom chaperones are delightful people eager to help share the wonders of your institution with their charges, from time to time a …

When the Dayton Art Institute announced in 1995 that its galleries would be closing for an 18 month period to accommodate an ambitious renovation and expansion, docents and teachers alike wondered what would happen to this worthwhile experience. What could have been a problem became a wonderful opportunity for our …

Twenty or less. Docents and educators across the country consider this the optimum size for school group tours in museums. That’s why we were both excited and a little nervous when the Education Department of the Chrysler Museum of Art invited us to craft and conduct tours for groups of …

Like thousands of others, I arrived well before the museum doors opened and stood in line waiting to be admitted to the Claude Monet exhibition at the Art Institute. I’d picked a gorgeous day—blue sky, low smog, sun rising over the lake. With latte in hand, I braced for what …

Counter-evolutionary In a 1983, Nova, the popular science series shown on the Public Broadcasting Service, aired a documentary called The Miracle of Life. The Emmy Award-winning film begins with a brief explanation of the origin of life on Earth. The narrator states, “Four and a half billion years ago, the …

We all tackle controversial art, objects, or subjects at our institutions, intentionally or unintentionally. In fact, entire exhibits have the potential to bring an institution to a screeching halt. As a curator, I may select the topic for the exhibit, devise an organizing principle, write labels that clearly explain to …

Your audience is a small sea of upturned, eager faces with ancient eyes that bespeak an origin in some far away area of Southeast Asia, and your subject is Victorian English Sporting Prints. How can you excite this exotic assembly with such a seemingly irrelevant topic? Here are some suggestions …

Did you know there are more historic house museums than any other kind of museum in the United States? Of the approximately 8,000 museums in America there are over 3,000 historic properties. Most towns have at least one stately home open to the public. The common thread running through these …

It can be tough and tricky. You’ve ask visitors a question in order to get them involved and thinking, and then, one of them responds with an answer so “incongruous” that it nearly steals your breath away. What could that person be thinking of? Or, perhaps someone responds to your …

Teachers understand that the school-museum field trip connection is a real “no-brainer.” You teach science? You take your class to science museums, aquaria, zoos, and nature centers. You teach social studies? You visit historic houses, sites, and history museums. You go to the art museum if you teach art, or …

“Louise Scribner, you were one of Miss Foster’s best friends and a member of the wealthy Scribner family of publishing fame. Miss Nina Howland, you were the belle of Morristown and helped found the Morris Country Golf Club, one of the few golf clubs in the country founded by women. …

by Cate O’Hara Museums and historic sites are repositories of history, culture, and educational opportunity for all visitors, including those with disabilities. This truth, together with the mandates of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), led the Tatt Museum stalt and volunteers on a path that resulted in the development …

Recently, I came upon a wonderful little book that has been useful in my gallery teaching. It is called The Tao of Leadership. Its author is John Heider. When this book was first recommended to me, I did not make the connection between leadership and teaching. After reading the text, …

Notable Quotables “A crank is a man with a new idea — until it catches on. ”  – Mark Twain “Imagination is more important than knowledge. ”  -Albert Einstein “Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in beliefs. ”  -James Russell Lowell “Chance …

Historic estate gardens often fall victim to a divided constituency — visitors who love plants and spend all of their time visiting gardens and those individuals who are history buffs, mainly interested in family lineage, the mansion, and the historic buildings. In addition, it is often difficult to attract people …

We all know of William Shakespeare as a pretty good play wright and poet but, judging from some of the subplots that show up in his plays, he had pretty distinct opinions about how to present his works as well. Perhaps the best known is Hamlet’s instructions to the players …

Since the aerospace industry is a central feature of the Puget Sound economy, flight and the basic principles or aerodynamics provide a natural context for teaching about science and mathematics to students in the region. The Museum of Flight in Seattle is a magnificent resource for teachers wanting to make …

As docents and staff educators, we constantly remind ourselves to be flexible. We know success requires us to “roll with the punches” — to adapt and respond to changing circumstances, ideas, and personalities. Reminding ourselves to be flexible serves as a license, granting us permission to depart from the standard …

The last two years have brought a dramatic increase in Educational Outreach programs at the Pensacola Museum of Art. The following tips helped us develop outreach trunks. Start with what you already have. Trunks can be developed on any theme — historical, cultural, scientific. The trick is to keep it …

There’s a scene in the movie Mr. Mom where Michael Keaton’s character has to drive his kids to school. He does it wrong. The kids in the back seat tell him so: “Dad, you’re doing it wrong!” The school’s yellow-slickered crossing guard tells him so: “Mr. Stevens, you’re doing it …

Mehedawah, a Ponca Indian woman, walks slowly into the classroom, beating a soft rhythm on her drum. Even though she died more than 70 years ago, Mehedawah reappears for fourth-graders at an elementary school to tell of life along the Niobrara River in northeast Nebraska, how the U.S. Government forced …

The National Archives and Records Administration, this nation’s filing cabinet, has the three part mission of protecting, maintaining, and making available the valuable permanent records of the federal government. This last component, that of making available, is the inspiration for two outreach efforts that bring programs directly to the people. …

Few museums target or have any great success reaching low-income families. Typically, Head Start families do not take advantage of museums in their communities even when the museums make their programs available at little or no cost. However, when museums take their interactive, hands-on learning experiences into the community, they …

Museums Create a Sense of Place in Phoenix The city of Phoenix, Arizona, is using museums to help create a “downtown” in this sprawling city of 2.4 million residents. Over the last five years, the community has built a swath of entertainment and cultural facilities at its core, including a …

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is a large urban institution with a strong commitment to providing educational outreach programs to diverse audiences throughout the southern California area. Outreach programs include those for elementary and middle schools, a traveling insect zoo, and a loan service that allows museum …

Alaska is fortunate to have two institutions in its state museum system—the Alaska State Museum in Juneau and the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka. Both facilities collect, preserve, and exhibit the material culture and natural history of Alaska. The Alaska State Museum exhibits all aspects of the state’s cultural and …

The opportunity to design and pilot an outreach program for the Education Department of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, began when two anthropologists who had lived among the Kuba people of Zaire donated over thirty Kuba objects to the Museum for use as a teaching collection. How …

Of all the educational activities conducted by museums, historic sites, zoos, parks, and gardens, few are less understood or appreciated than outreach. Outreach, or programming that occurs in locations other than the originating institution, is perceived by many staff members as the bane of their responsibilities, and is often discounted …

In order for teenagers to have a personalized museum experience, docents at the Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, contact classroom teachers and, together, establish goals for the museum visit. Frequently, high school teachers are anxious for their students to discover something new at the museum – …

Ask teenagers what they want, and you’ll get a variety of answers — a new Lamborghini, an “A” on the chemistry exam, no zits, or world peace. Look closely at what they need, however, and the answer is unequivocal. Most adolescents need a large dose of self-confidence. Adolescents are probably …

Kids Touring Kids began five years ago with a phone call from a mother whose son had a strong interest in history and needed to fulfill a community service commitment. Did we have something for him to do? Shortly after receiving that call I read an article about using teens as …

How do we best utilize the energy and enthusiasm of teenagers to help further the mission of our museum? That might be a question asked by museum educators contemplating the development of new youth programs at their sites. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, after asking this …

Underlining important points from The Docent Educator seemed like a good idea until I noticed that every sentence of every issue was underlined. Every sentence contains a good idea. I just mailed the issue with your ’94 article on Imagining to my daughter who has our 15 month old grandson. …

Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art A new $35 million Contemporary Art Museum opened this past autumn in Barcelona, Spain. The museum, designed by American architect Richard Meier, has received great praise for its beauty and collection. Complementing Barcelona’s fine Picasso Museum and a hilltop foundation containing a collection of Miro’s …

The Musée de la Civilisation in Quebec City is a young, education-oriented institution constructed around a social science theme. It has welcomed 700,000 visitors every year since 1988. According to visitor surveys, what younger people enjoy most about the Musée is its warm welcome, the range of exhibitions, and the …

Teaching with a dual curriculum is an exciting and successful way to involve high school students in museums, while providing collaborative opportunities between museums and schools. A dual curriculum synthesizes materials, objects, and information from two museums — one art and the other history — into one program consisting of …

How much content from your last tour do you think students retained? It may well depend on the method you used to convey the information. According to S. Famham-Diggery in Paradigms of Know ledge and Instruction (1994). there are four teaching methods which encompass all other teaching activities, they are: …

It’s truly amazing when you think about it. Every single one of us who is older than nineteen experienced being a teenager, yet most of us can’t seem to recall what it was actually like, and even fewer of us know how to relate to those who are currently working …

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 …

As docents, we’ve all had them. Sometimes we get advance warning. Most of the time we don’t. But we have all known those occasions when we find ourselves in the middle of a tour, and we realize that things are out of control. How it happens will vary. It may …

In a previous issue of The Docent Educator, a docent invited readers to contribute humorous interpretive JL. experiences. I would like to share an incident that happened at Colonial National Historical Park, where I am an interpretive park ranger at Yorktown Battlefield. Among the programs at our park is the …

Picking Up the Slack According to a survey conducted by the Business Committee for the Arts, business support for arts organizations in the United States reached an estimated $875 million in 1994. That figure represents a significant jump from the $518 million figure of the previous survey, which reflected business …

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 …

Last summer was so “unreal” it caused me to look at one of the fastest growing trends in public and private education with new eyes. First, my husband and I spent a week at Disney World where unreality has been raised to a science. As if having breakfast with a …

Dr. Howard Gardner has defined possibilities for new relationships between schools and museums which, if taken seriously, could change the nature of both types of institutions and the definition of education as well. His work has important implications for anyone involved as a docent or staff educator. In his text. …

Just as newborns innocently enter this world with the capacity for being totally immersed in sensory experiences, so too, do our museum, zoo, and park visitors. Each of them has the potential for sensory involvement waiting to be engaged and fulfilled. After all, how does a newborn learn about his …

The Favorite Books of Several Well-Known Educators The intent of this issue of The Docent Educator is to examine the field of education and to reflect upon its relevance to teaching within museums, historic sites, zoos, parks, and gardens. A recent survey reported in Teacher Magazine lists the all-time favorite …

On Wednesday, December 8, 1993, docents from five museums came together to examine the question, “Art that offends; does it belong in our museums?” Docents representing the Corcoran Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of American Art, and the Phillips Collection looked to a …

The depiction of a docent as purely a lecturer responsible for educating visitors on museum objects and artifacts may someday become part of museum history. Today, the docent role in many institutions has been expanded to encompass a vast range of functions and services that are an integral part of …

Art teachers and art museums – – this seems like a marriage made in heaven. But the majority of art museum educators in the State of Virginia report that most of their school tours are not led by art teachers, and that art teachers make little use of other museum …

What Makes Visitors Want to Learn? was the intriguing title of the feature article appearing in the May/June 1995 issue of Museum News. The article, authored by Mihaly Csikszentmihályi and Kim Hermanson of the University of Chicago, examines visitors’ intrinsic desire to learn from museum exhibitions. Though clearly written for …

Two years ago, a visitor to the National Gallery of Art wrote to the editor of The Washington Post complaining that a tour he had heard interrupted his appreciation of a work by Rembrandt. I felt the need to respond, but by the time my letter was approved by all …

Escher, Einstein, and Ellington? Warhol, Wagner, and Washington? Seurat and Dr. Seuss? Balanchine and basketball? There are those who consider the arts as separate, elite, apart from the regular world, mysterious, and unknowable. But, no child finds it “mysterious” to dance with delight before he knows how to express that …

I don’t teach kindergarten, but my sixth graders are “buddies” with our school’s kindergarten children. We are their “‘computer tutors,” we give them a Halloween party and an Easter egg hunt, and, once a year, we accompany them on a trip to the zoo or science museum. This year, when …

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 …

America Preserved The Library of Congress is offering an all-new, comprehensive checklist of the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record collections. This illustrated publication is hardbound and available for $74 (including UPS shipping). To get further information, or to order, call (800) 255-3666, or TDD (202) …

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 …

A well constructed introduction does several important things for a museum tour. It establishes the tone, clarifies expectations, and affirms the docent’s role while orienting visitors to a new experience. Just as the seasoned docent can size up a group as they enter the museum, visitors form powerful first impressions …

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 …

Large or small, in an auditorium or in a museum gallery, audiences respond to the same basic principles of public speaking. Begin by presenting the overview or theme that will thread itself throughout your talk. Your audience needs to understand what you will be teaching them and to have some …

Your new class is before you, notebooks and sharpened pencils at the ready. Attendance has been recorded, and you are poised to begin. Some of the faces turn toward you with enthusiasm; some appear to have skipped breakfast and a good night’s sleep. You open your mouth to begin. A …

Over the past ten years, there has been a major movement in museum education departments to address family audiences. As museums increase the number of special events, self-guided tours, workshops, and activities designed specifically for families, docents must master touring techniques for groups composed of both adults and children. Family …

Recent research on families and museums, as well as my work at the Oakland Museum of California, confirms that it is the family visit, not the school field trip, that influences whether or not a child will grow up to be a museum-visiting adult. But museums must do more than …

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, located in Brunswick, Maine, is an integral part of Bowdoin College, a four-year co-educational liberal arts institution established 1794. The Museum’s art collection is encyclopedic in scope ranging from classical antiquities to significant holdings of American and European paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and …

Each year, the education department of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln provides tours to approximately 1 ,000 first-year students enrolled in a program entitled University Foundations. The University Foundations program is a course designed to develop “the student’s ability to …

Kevin Sorrow, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Georgia, passes by the Georgia Museum of Art, located in the historic quadrangle of the university, every day on his way to class or downtown Athens. Although he had been curious about the museum since he started his college career over …

Expect More Museum-School Partnerships The 1994 U.S. Congress made $100 million available for school and community partnerships, as part of its Goals 2000 legislation. Created to improve the quality of education as we move into the 21st century, the legislation encourages schools to take advantage of community resources and connect …

Why do we as museum educators and docents believe fiercely in the value of gallery talks with adults? Simply stated, because we have seen them work. We have had visitors tell us that having someone “explain the objects’” or show them “what to look for” has changed their lives. Such …

Remember those times in the galleries when your temperature rises in response to a tour participant? How annoying; they just don’t get it. They can’t see your point. Their behavior seems off track, picky, flaky, rigid, out of touch, or unresponsive. How irritating. Perhaps what you have experienced is simply …

Imagine standing next to a work of contemporary art. The work is particularly perplexing. You find the work difficult to comprehend, and yet it is your responsibility as a docent to explain it to others who wander by. “I could do that; why it this thing in an art gallery?!” …

People learn best by “doing.” Need proof? Consider how most of us learn to use a computer. We don’t just read the instruction manual, memorize it, and then turn the machine on. We learn in a series of back-and-forth steps, where something we want to do compels us to find …

Often, the first spontaneous responses you hear from guests at an aquarium or zoo are “Cool! Can I touch it?” or “Ouuu, what does that animal feel like?” The desire to touch a Hawksbill sea turtle to know how hard its shell is, or to pet a Sea otter to …

At the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), many docents have been members of the Education Division for over twenty-five years! ! ! Keeping their teaching fresh and enthusiastic is a top priority. This goal presents several obvious challenges, not the least of which is how to stimulate new insights …

Although “reading, interpreting, and discovering meaning” is an acknowledged goal in all teaching, object literacy (a.k.a. visual literacy) may not be as readily understood or embraced. Even experienced educators are sometimes uncertain about the importance of object literacy. What does it mean? Is it essential? Will it advance my curriculum? …

by Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd We’ve all taken them. Those historic house museum tours led by a pointing finger identifying one thing after another in a room. “And, over here is a beautiful Duncan Phyfe table.” (You are thinking. “What is a dunkinfife?”) “Next,” the tour leader continues, “please notice the …