Museum educators rarely experience ongoing training. They tend to rely on their past experiences of teaching and learning to guide their interactions with learners. Allen and Crowley describe the implementation of a new school trip program that challenged museum educators’ beliefs. The program involved a five-month process of reflective practice and the iterative testing of student-centered, inquiry-based facilitation approaches.
The Australian Museum, Sydney, has been working with students aged 5–18 from a coalition of around 20 schools to gain advice on the development of exhibitions, programs, and the design of learning experiences, particularly regarding the use of digital environment. This paper discusses some of the results of this working relationship.
In this paper, Rhoads argues that exposure to museum resources and exhibitions can greatly benefit people with dementia—that is, those suffering the loss or decline of memory and other cognitive abilities. She calls for museums to think beyond their current offerings and develop tailored programs for people with dementia and their caregivers.
ISE educators who provide guided tours at museums and similar institutions will be interested in this paper as it addresses how informal educators can assess a visitor's ""entrance narrative,"" or collection of experiences, memories, and knowledge related to the subject matter of the museum, and respond to it in ways that enhance and increase visitors engagement with the subject matter during the tour. Visitors that experienced the entrance narrative mapping technique described here believed it helped them more deeply engage in the subject matter of the tour.