What is it about?
This article identifies specific student engagement behaviors that challenge museum educators’ self-efficacy and offers insight on developing new engagement skills.
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Why is it important?
Adolescents in tour groups seem to be more and more distracted by cell phones and peers, making it difficult for museum educators to capture their attention. This article describes docent submitted real life scenarios that the author, an experienced art educator, matches with successful engagement strategies.
Perspectives
As a veteran art teacher who has taken hundreds of K-12 students to museums, I have identified behavior in tours that falls along a spectrum from "very engaged" to "very disengaged." Over the years, I have developed a "toolbox" of strategies that help students to connect with works of art in a meaningful way. I have also facilitated professional development sessions for docents in three nationally prominent art museums: McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, the Saint Louis Art Museum and Minneapolis Institute of the Arts.
Teri Evans-Palmer
Texas State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Raising Docent Confidence in Engaging Students on School Tours, Journal of Museum Education, October 2013, Maney Publishing,
DOI: 10.1179/1059865013z.00000000037.
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