To successfully conduct “inquiry” tours, it’s essential to remember that all experiences, including viewing and interpreting objects in your collection, are subjective. Whether caused by differences in physical proximity to an object, or differences in personal or cultural patterns of thinking, the range of subjective variables among visitors is great …
Freddie had such a wonderful time today,” she gushes, her arms entwining her squirming son. “I know you teachers must love field trips as much as the children do. I think it’s so nice that you all can get a day off from school like this every now and then.” …
Whether we think of the museum as temple or forum, the experience we strive to stimulate for our visitors is that of contemplation — contemplation leading to awareness enlightenment, and understanding. In today’s information world, however, where attention spans are driven by 30 second media messages, contemplation is not always …
A two-year old, Korean-American boy sits solemnly on the beige-carpeted steps. His dark-brown bangs cut straight across his tan forehead. With his small, heart-shaped mouth pursed, he looks directly into the camera — thoroughly unabashed by the photographer. His short-sleeved, purple tee shirt and apple-red overall shorts create the backdrop …
Thinking Strategies In their text “Teaching for Thinking: Theory, Strategies and Activities for the Classroom” (Teachers College, Columbia University Press, 1986), authors Raths, Wasserman, Jonas, and Rothstein warn that “we are graduating large numbers of students who are expert at memorizing and recalling factual information, but who lack the ability to …
In a gallery where a number of portraits and genre scenes can be viewed, I instruct students to choose a painting in which the focus is a person or persons. I hand each student a sheet of paper entitled. “I Have a Story to Tell.” The sheet has a space …
Organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1981 as a meeting of art museum docents, the National Docent Symposium has become a biennial event hosting volunteer and staff educators from all museum disciplines. In 1985, the multi-disciplined Oakland Museum Association hosted the Symposium and broadened its scope to include …
People have a natural wonder and curiosity about other living things. Docents working with live plants and animals have infinite opportunities to excite and inform visitors of all ages. A few special interpretative approaches and techniques will capture the audience as well as make their experience more enjoyable. At the …
Ensuring that each child has a positive and meaningful learning experience should be the primary goal of every docent. A variety of presentation methodologies and reinforcement techniques is available to assist art museum docents in pursuit of this goal, several of which are integral parts of a new program called …