Many of the people who have the time and the interest to become museum docents are those who are retired from an active business or professional life. That being so, it occasionally occurs that a qualified applicant is disabled or an active docent suffers an illness or accident that limits …
In general, visitors go to museums to see what might be new and interesting. In other words, visitors are curious. Curiosity, according to psychologists, is an intrinsic motivator — that is, curiosity motivates people to seek and find something. What an opportunity for docents, who thrive on sharing information! The …
The museum was small, and the budget even smaller, when I undertook to write my first docent manual almost twenty years ago. The docents I had recruited all volunteered to “help” in our small town’s first and only museum. Many of the volunteers, and most of the town, had never …
Trainers enable people to do something — catch a football, perform heart surgery, ride a bicycle. Educators enable people to know something— the dimensions of a football field, the arterial system, the history of bicycles. All training involves some knowledge imparted before and during training. Therefore, the terms are commonly …
Similarities in the roles of classroom teachers and docents suggest that a review of teacher training programs may provide insights into docent training. Perhaps the best known model of teacher training was developed by Bruce R. Joyce and Beverly Showers. According to these two scholars, staff development programs for teachers …
One does discover new lands without consenting — to lose sight of by the shore.” (Andre Gide) The safety of “shore” in a docent training Nelson program can often be the security of mastering factual information about a particular museum collection. But what happens when docents move away from the …
During my 27 years of involvement with museums and docent training, I have arrived at the opinion that the most effective docents are those who have the firmest understanding of teaching and education. Likewise, it is my observation that the most common error made in constructing and executing docent training …
“Look at the size of that group out there!” exclaims one docent-in-training As the class studies inside the lecture hall, they can see through the large glass windows that eighty people have just walked in on a Saturday morning to take the Historic Skyscrapers tour at 10:00 a.m. The class, …
To target knowledgeable, talkative docents as an audience is an educational challenge. How do you teach the teacher? It you have given a tour for a group of educators, you know that they can be a tough audience. After attending the National Docent Symposium, the docents in North Carolina decided …
In 1992 the Desert Botanical Garden received a grant to develop educational elements along the trails to teach about desert plants and ecology. One of those elements was docent-staffed “investigation stations.” The stations, to be located at selected sites along the Garden trails, would have docents available to answer visitors’ …
Some questions are repeatedly asked of volunteer docents. Why do you volunteer? What do you gain? Why have you continued to be a docent for so long? The three of us have tried to address these questions and others as we reflect on our over seventy years of collective service …
Change! We either welcome it or fear it, depending on how the change will personally affect us.” That sentence was the first paragraph of a letter I sent to all Tulsa Zoo Docents nearly 10 years ago when I made the decision to “restructure” the Docent Council and its relationship …
Prior to the explosion of the internet, the use of computers by many docents was limited primarily to word processing functions — drafting reports required as part of training, or perhaps constructing tours and recording or arranging information. With the wealth of information now online, from the everyday to the …
Volunteers have choices about how they will spend their volunteer hours. Museums and other institutions, therefore, must strive to make their programs attractive to prospective docents, as well as rewarding to active docents. While some larger institutions are blessed with well-established docent programs and no shortage of applicants to join …
The emergence of activity based learning centers in museums across the country poses a challenge to docents who staff these areas. In these “discovery” rooms, visitors engage in activities designed for self-directed learning. The role of the docent becomes that of facilitator, which means interacting with visitors in a less …
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 …
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 …
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 …
This fail marks the fourth year of an innovative “high school docent program” at The Friends of Photography in San Francisco that empowers young adults by making them leaders in a public setting. Bringing in high school students to serve as an integral part of a museum changes the institutional …
“Pay attention: there’ll be a test later!” “Did you study for your biology exam?” “I can’t believe I failed the driver’s test … again!” Educators have tried to soften the blow by re-naming them — evaluations, assessments, portfolio reviews — but, a test by any other name is still a …
Most staff members think of docents as teachers because they educate the visiting public about our collections and exhibitions. The very word “docent” is derived from a Greek word meaning “to teach.” But those of us privileged to provide docent training must also consider their needs as learners. Museum education …
As part of my recently Completed dissertation, I conducted an international survey of the role of voluntary gallery guides in art museums. The results are discussed in this article. Who Are We? Of the twenty-nine respondents to the international questionnaire, all indicated that the vast majority of their voluntary guides …
Staff and volunteers often wonder about attrition among docent staffs. Who might drop out? Who plans to come back in the fall? Will there be enough docents? What new program initiatives will require the museum to add more docents for the next year? Over the years, museum educators have developed …
A recent declaration by the American Association of Museums stating that “there is an educational purpose in every museum activity” {Excellence and Equity. 192. Washington. DC: American Association of Museums) could be considered true … at least conceptually. However, this view is not consistent with reality. In practice, the purpose …