Museum as a Resource
Museum as a Resource (M/R), LearnLead’s initial offering, was designed in partnership with the National Head Start Association to test the thesis that a new relationship among Head Start staff and families and museum educators could improve outcomes for each of the partners.
What’s a Museum Resource?
Collections and hands-on exhibits
Object-based expertise of museum educators
“Exportable” museum materials such as posters, postcards, films, and discovery boxes
Existing museum programs such as family days, parent/child classes, and exhibit orientations for adults.
The program offered a new model for adult to adult planning between Head Start and museum staffs tested the efficacy of the learning through looking learning model in a wide variety of museums. The process required:
Adults before children
Parents and teachers together or in parallel programs
Child-centered use of cultural resources.
Through collaborative planning and a series of direct experiences in museums led by museum educators, parents and teachers strengthened their own observation, critical thinking and communications skills and practiced inquiry – the art of using closed, open-ended questions and wait time – to turn art and objects into conversation starters with young children. Parents returned to the museum with their children for a family field trip.
The format was exciting and instructive but short-lived . (See Lessons Learned below.) Modification of federal welfare laws in the late ‘90’s undercut the daytime availability of parents. New logistics explored include workshops for museum and Head Start professionals, strong encouragement for the use of exportable materials, promotion of free family days to Head Start families and the development of family field trips.
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Lessons Learned
With the help of museums educators, we validated the power of visual vocabulary which we re-branded as "observation tools" to help adults engage young children in conversation and discovery.
There was little difference between Head Start teachers and Head Start parents in past experiences with museums.
Both parents and teachers reported positive reactions to learning in museums.
Providing buses to bring families from Head Start to the museum increased the comfort and social environment for families and provided an opportunity to brief parents in advance of arrival.
Museums of all types and museum educators are remarkable, typically under-utilized assets for early childhood education.
The most intimidating part of the museum was not the collections, but the building itself. We believed this discomfort likely to reflect discomfort with other formal, potentially imposing, buildings such as schools, hospitals, government office buildings., etc. This concern provided the seeds for Messages of the Built Environment.