Inspiration - Identity - Learning - The Value of Museums
Inspiration - Identity - Learning - The Value of Museums
RCMG
Jocelyn Dodd
Martin Philips
University of Leicester
Ceri Jones
Jenny Woodward
Helen ORiain
ISBN no 1 898489 27 0
Published by RCMG, September 2004
Copyright DCMS
Contents
Key Findings
Background
Impact on schools
Teachers views on museum visits and learning
Pupils views on learning
Part 2: Museums and contemporary issues
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Key findings
Museums inspire powerful and identity-building
learning in children, young people and community
members
Museums:
Inspire learners across all age ranges
Are sites of enhanced achievement, going beyond
what learners think they can do
Engage both boys and girls
Stimulate vulnerable pupils and those that find
learning difficult
Target and motivate disadvantaged individuals and
groups effectively
Provide resources for all curriculum areas, and for
inter-disciplinary themes
Respond effectively to primary, secondary, FE and HE
curricula
Complement formal education when pupils are off
curriculum (hospital schools, pupils who are
refugees)
Background
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills commissioned 12
projects through the Strategic Commissioning Programme 2003-2004: National/Regional Museum Education
Partnerships. These projects consisted of museum education partnerships between national and regional museums,
strengthened and enhanced by other organisations. The projects ran from August 2003 to March 2004 and were of
varying size, receiving between 50,000 and 350,000.
The 12 projects
Project
Lead museum
Partners
British Museum
British Library
Partners in Time
Understanding Slavery
Anim8ed
National Museum of
Photography Film & Television
National Museum of
Science & Industry
Manchester Museum
Philpot Museum, Lyme Regis
Dorset County Museum
Roman Baths Museum, Bath
British Empire & Commonwealth Museum, Bristol
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
Luton Museums Service
Mid Anglia SATRO
Beningbrough Hall
Montacute House
Dove Cottage, Wordsworth Trust
Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
National Museums Liverpool
Bristol City Museums & Art Gallery
British Empire & Commonwealth Museum
Bradford Museums, Galleries & Heritage
York Museums Trust
Ragged School Museum
London Canal Museum
Beauchamp Lodge Settlement
New Art Gallery Walsall
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust
Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery
Royal Pavilion Libraries & Museums, Brighton
Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston
Bristol City Museums & Art Gallery
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Leicester City Museums Service
Salford Museum & Art Gallery
Leeds Museums & Galleries
Bradford Museums, Galleries & Heritage
Creative Canals
Supporting Regional
Schools
Tate Britain
National Gallery
Moving Minds
Montacute House
Research methods
The intention of the research was to explore the impact
of learning for schools and community groups across
the 12 projects.
The research ran in parallel with the evaluation of the
Renaissance in the Regions Education Programme,
funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
(MLA).
Further information
Evidence from the 12 projects was collected in the
following ways:
Impact on schools
The research has produced a large amount of evidence of the impact of the programme on pupils and teachers
learning.
In the project brief, DCMS/DfES identified a number of potential learning outcomes for pupils and teachers. These
were linked to the Generic Learning Outcomes.
Learning
outcomes
for pupils
Learning
outcomes
for teachers
Knowledge and
understanding
Skills
Enjoyment, inspiration,
creativity
Activity, Behaviour,
Progression
The research shows very clearly how effective museums can be in stimulating learning across the range of
dimensions encompassed by the five Generic Learning Outcomes.
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History
Art
Science
79%
80%
75%
68%
45%
64%
57%
63%
45%
51%
46%
51%
Skills
46%
48%
41%
Fig. 9: How teachers working on different themes rated the learning outcomes
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Question
Yes
91%
No
2%
Don't Know
7%
I learned some
interesting new things
90%
3%
7%
I could understand
most of the things
we saw and did
79%
7%
14%
83%
5%
12%
71%
13%
16%
83%
6%
11%
73%
11%
15%
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Question
Yes
No
Don't Know
77%
9%
14%
I discovered some
interesting things from
the visit today
89%
5%
6%
13%
23%
77%
9%
13%
A museum visit is a
good chance to pick up
some new skills
70%
12%
17%
86%
5%
10%
8%
18%
55%
15%
30%
16%
21%
Pupils voices
Key Stage 2 pupil questionnaires included a space for free-form writing or drawing. The results give an insight into
the impact of learning on children.
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Knowledge and
understanding
Skills
Attitudes
and values
Enjoyment,
inspiration,
creativity
Action,behaviour,
progression
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Knowledge and
understanding
Changed perceptions of what animation can be used for e.g. in numeracy, PE, RE, literacy
Skills
Attitudes
and values
Enthusiasm of pupils inspires and pleases the teachers (increased satisfaction with
museums provision)
Enjoyment,
inspiration,
creativity
Action,behaviour,
progression
More confident using animation - seeing increased possibilities for using it across the
curriculum
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Attitudes
and values
Improved outcomes
(motivation, engagement, selfconfident, comfort, satisfaction)
for participants in museum
programmes.
Enhanced perception of the
importance and value of
museums and services they
provide amongst participants
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Pupils were impressed by their exposure to real portraits: It just felt like
Ive seen the first one in my whole entire life. Pupils made personal
connections to the paintings - Well when you start drawing them it
takes quite a while you kind of feel like youve known this person.
Pupils from Norfolk schools were inspired by the aeroplanes and
hangars they saw at Duxford to explore the concept of structures; they
learnt about various kinds of structures (including their own skeletons)
in the morning, and applied their knowledge by constructing a structure
in a group in the afternoon. Their enthusiasm, new knowledge and
skills, and ability to work together to solve the challenges presented
resulted in increased confidence and self-esteem and gave them all,
including a child with considerable difficulties in concentrating, an
experience of successful learning.
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New partnerships
New audiences
New audiences were enthusiastically sought by the
national museums through national and regional
partners; increasing access to their collections in the
regions and using the ability of local and regional
museums to reach wider audiences by accessing their
community networks. New audiences included rural
schools, disadvantaged urban communities, hospital
schools, refugees and asylum seekers and community
groups who are not usually regarded as those who
would use museums.
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Limited innovation
Where there are too many new elements, projects are
likely to struggle. The potential for new elements in the
DCMS/DfES programme was high. The evaluation found
examples of:
New organisations
New organisational partners
New ideas
New collections
New ways of working
New audiences
New project deliverers
New administrative systems
New communicative systems
Limited innovation
Strong museum-related ideas
Appropriate management
Project workers with appropriate skills and experience
Participants and partners needs are met
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New teachers
resources
The Transatlantic Slave Trade at Bristol Industrial Museum: A Resource for KS3 teachers Bristol Museums and Art Gallery
Freedom - National Maritime Museum (teachers pack)
4x resource folios - Beningbrough Hall
The Box - New Art Gallery Walsall
Money Matters - Manchester Museum (teachers pack)
CD-ROM / DVD /
Video
Increased
handling
collections
Manchester Museum
Understanding Slavery Museum partners
Schools
programmes and
workshops
New websites
Anim8ed - www.nmpft.org.uk/anim8ed
Moving Minds - www.moveyourmind.org.uk
Take one picture - www.takeonepicture.org.uk
Professional
development
materials
Evaluation Toolkit and Best Practice Guide for Engaging Refugees and Asylum Seekers,
National Museums Liverpool
Image and Identity: Talking Partnership Toolkit - V&A
Exhibitions,
displays and
interpretive
materials
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Last Thoughts
Clear evidence of impact on learning has been found
across the whole range of individuals, groups and
communities as part of both formal and informal
learning. In addition, it is clear that there is a potential
for using museums to engage with children and young
people who are often not reached, or stimulated, by
more conventional methods of teaching. Museums can
work effectively with both special needs and vulnerable
groups and also with the mainstream.
The challenge now is to find the structures and the
means to use the power to inspire learning and to build
identities more effectively and more consistently. The
research found barriers to the realisation of this power
in those aspects of museum culture that marginalised
educational work, in the capacity of museums to
respond to the demands of ambitious educational
programmes, and in the limited expectations of
museum users and partners who did not know how to
maximise the learning potential of museums.
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