Mandatory Site Visits?!

[Gabrielle Edwards]

Discussions on the development of a national curriculum at the Learning in Museums Seminar piqued my interest. The potential impact of this on museum education – the opportunities, risks and challenges – could be significant. At times like this it is inspiring to hear how other museum educators are responding to challenges and change.

Of particular interest to me is the notion of a museum site visits/museum experience becoming a central, possibly mandatory, part of a national history curriculum. I have heard that in the Netherlands schools set aside Wednesday afternoons for this purpose. Does anyone know more on this? Would Australia ever go this far?

A development of this sort could have an impact on the way we develop and deliver educational programmes. At Old Parliament House we currently host 80 000 students from across Australia every year. They participate in a one hour programme, fully staff facilitated. If we were required to accommodate more students as a result of the national curriculum we may have to rethink how we develop and deliver programmes.

Mandi Dimitriadis, from the South Australian Maritime Museum, gave an engaging presentation on the way she used self-guided audio trails to allow students an imaginative, interactive and independent site visit. She created a way for students to have a meaningful and enjoyable visit without a high degree of staff facilitation.

What about students in remote or rural areas who can’t readily get to a museum? How could we facilitate museum experiences for them? Andy Baird from the Tasmanian Museum developed a project between the museum and schools in remote areas, engaging students on collaborative research and the writing of an e-book.

This does raise a question of equity though – is an off-site experience equal to a on-site experience?
With a background in schools education, I fully appreciate that museums can support and enhance student learning. A national curriculum entailing museum visits/experiences presents challenges in the way we deliver to students but also offers a swathe of opportunities to forge strong, collaborative bonds between museums and schools.

The Seminar was a wonderful opportunity to hear about changes and developments and creative ways educators are responding to them. I would like to thank the speakers at the Seminar for their generous sharing of ideas, for ENVI and Old Parliament House for supporting my attendance, and IMAGE for providing bursary attendees with the opportunity to share our findings and perceptions on our return.

[Gabrielle Edwards]

Thanks for this link, Robert. It will be interesting to see how far the National History Curriculum goes with mandatory site visits and what challenges and opportunities arise from this. Old Parliamnet House is embracing new modes of democratic learning - keep an ear out for the exciting new developments - to be unveiled May this year.

[Robert]

This actually links to that other discussion regarding the Demos report here, making visits to theatres, museums, galleries and libraries part of the school curriculum is one of its recommendations. Given that certain key people within the Rudd administration have past links to Demos there may be some support for similar moves here?

[Amanda Coleman]

you go girl