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 …