London

What teachers want

GEM London Training Day, Brent Museum 14 July 2006

What do teachers really want from museum visits?

How can we develop our services to best serve schools?

Where can we find the answers?

This training day aimed to help museum educators improve the quality of their schools’ programming by developing a more thorough understanding of what teachers really want.

Karen Giles, Headteacher at Barham Primary School, led a frank discussion on what teachers love and hate about museum visits. An LEA Advisor gave tips on how to build partnerships with local schools, and museum consultant, Alison James, gave information on how to consult with teachers.

What Teachers Want

Introduction

This GEM London training day focused on exploring what expectations teachers have about working with museums, what research already exists on the subject, and how museums can consult teachers directly.

The session was divided into three sections:

‘Museum education from a teacher’s perspective’ led by Karen Giles, Headteacher at Barham Primary School
‘Building partnerships with schools’ led by Jan Kofi-Tsekpo and Jennifer Blay from the MLA London
‘Consulting with teachers’ led by museum consultant, Alison James

Support documents

Original speakers’ notes are attached in the appendices
Contact Jan Kofi-Tsekpo (north London contact: 0207 549 1715, jan.kofi-tsekpo@mlalondon.org.uk ) or Jenny Blay (south London contact: 0207 549 1707, jennifer.bly@mlalondon.org.uk ) for information about the Teacher Placement Scheme and other resources www.mlalondon.org.uk
Refer to “ABC of Working with Schools and Making the Most of Museums” online at Renaissance South East web site www.museumse.org.uk

SECTION ONE: TOP TEN LIST OF WHAT TEACHERS WANT FROM MUSEUMS

Karen Giles, Headteacher at Barham Primary School provided practical advice on what teachers expect from museums and tips on how to improve the service.

1. Pre-visit guidance:

Provide clear, informative booking information
Teachers generally prefer to speak to an educator directly on the phone either at the time of booking or before the session.
Provide booking and planning information on your website
Provide ideas for learning activities to do in the classroom and, particularly, to do during the visit to the museum

2. Value for Money

Transport costs are a real deterrent for schools. Museums should explore ‘deals’ with coach companies and/or public travel. (Note: this is something that local authority museums may be able to negotiate with some success).
Schools are not permitted to use school funds to supplement the cost of outings. The cost of the visit is passed onto the family. Often, parents can’t afford to pay, therefore, museums should explore any way they can minimise the cost helps.

3. Health and Safety

Museums should provide a safe place to have lunch, preferably indoors.
Groups need a storage area/system for bags, coats and lunches.
Teachers need some areas large enough to contain the children and do head counts.
Museums should provide a First Aid Room and/or clearly outline their First Aid provision.
Find out what info schools need in their Risk Assessments and provide this information at the time of booking, in the confirmation letter or on the website.

4. Motivational staff & volunteers

Museum staff/volunteers should be:

Available and enthusiastic
Knowledgeable about the subject matter
Able to pitch the information at the children’s level
Child friendly (if staff/volunteers don’t like children, it shows)
Try different teaching techniques to make the sessions interesting (e.g. hot seating – role play without costumes).

5. Interactive learning

Provide opportunities to handle artefacts
Live experiments
Using Audio/Visual material, especially for ESOL and groups with special educational needsAsk open-ended questions and seek investigative answers Interactive teaching techniques (e.g. talk partners – talk to your partner about “x” for 60 seconds; mantle of the expert; history detectives)

6. Relevance

While museums must make visits relevant to the curriculum, their strength is in delivering cross-curricular links
To ensure their programming is relevant, museums can ask teachers for a mid-term plan
Ensure marketing info makes relevance to curriculum clear, but go beyond the boundaries while delivering the sessions

7. Inclusion

Museums should consider how the programmes are relevant to the schools’ children (i.e. issues of inclusion, diversity)
Museums should reflect and explore the contributions of our diverse communities

8. Outdoor learning opportunities

Boys tend to learn better through physical activities. Museums should explore how this can be accommodated.

9. Post-visit learning activities

Provide follow-up worksheets rather than worksheets to do during the visit.
Provide loan boxes with notes

10. Outreach

Outreach programmes that take place in the schools is particularly effective for Early Years and SEN
Loan boxes and/or handling sessions can be useful for pre or post visits
Provide outreach sessions led by museum staff and/or guest speakers.
A reasonable price for outreach is £2 per child (the price of a Happy Meal), charging a nominal fee can add value to the session
Send or email teachers a copy of free activities in advance for them to photocopy or use in the classroom before or after the visit.
Consider making information/resources available on the London Grid for Learning

Q&A information

Teachers need to get to know the museum and its collections and to think about how it relates to their students (e.g. ethnicity, etc).
Practical issues often dictate choices (e.g. if the school has to pay for a coach, then they may as well go further afield).
Bribery gets you everywhere. One way to get teachers to return evaluation/consultation forms is by offering a gift or voucher.
Teachers tend to consult the London Grid for Learning. Teachersnet isn’t used as much. Curriculum Online is a useful web resource.
Ideally, send marketing information to the relevant teacher (e.g. humanities subject leader) instead of the Headteacher or Secretary.
Be aware that teachers face information overload. Ideal time to send marketing material is the beginning of term (September is better than August).
INSET – easier for teachers if the session is delivered at the school, not at the museum
Get local businesses to sponsor/subsidise school visits
Make the museum a ‘fun day out’ for children. It shouldn’t feel too much like school.

SECTION TWO: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS WITH SCHOOLS

In this session, Jan Kofi-Tsekpo and Jennifer Blay, the Cultural Entitlement School Liaison Officers from the MLA London, presented findings from the Strategic Commissioning Programme’s research into building stronger links between schools, museums and archives funded by the DfES and DCMS in 2005/06.

The Strategic Commissioning Programme has 3 core aims:

To survey school participation with museums and archives
To raise participation, promoting lasting links between schools and local institutions
To facilitate museums, archives and schools to develop creative ways of delivering the curriculum.

In 2005/06, MLA London conducted research with London-based teachers to establish their views about museum education. The MLA London Teachers’ Questionnaire used Inspiring Learning for All methodology to underpin the questionnaire.

The questionnaire aimed to:

Provide an overview of what schools are doing at the moment
Investigate teachers’ perceptions of museums and archives, the benefits for their pupils and themselves.
Find out how museums and archives can best suit teachers’ needs in the future.

121 teachers were surveyed from 112 schools in 13 London boroughs. The responses came from 86 primary schools, 21 secondary schools, and 14 special schools.

Significant findings:

38% of schools had a ‘low or no’ participation in museums and archives (0-2 visits per year); 26% were listed at ‘high’ participation (6+ visits). A follow up survey in 2006/07 will help establish a clearer picture of schools participation.

The majority of the schools surveyed indicated their participation with museums and archives was successful

Primary schools: popular subjects are: History, Art & Design, Science, followed by cross-curricular subjects, Geography and Citizenship. Pupils benefit from ‘deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject matter’, followed by ‘developing ideas’ and ‘creative thinking’. Challenges faced include: providing more ‘practical’ sessions, cheaper travel and session costs, more convenient transport, more curriculum-focused activities.
Secondary schools: popular subjects are: History, Art & Design, Geography and Science. Pupils benefit from ‘deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject matter’, followed by ‘developing ideas’ and ‘creative thinking’. Challenges faced include: more curriculum-focused activities, more ‘practical’ sessions, cheaper session costs, and more convenient transport.
Special Schools: popular subjects are: History, Art & Design, and Citizenship. Pupils benefit from ‘deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject matter’, and ‘developing social skills’. Challenges faced include: more practical sessions, a warm welcome at the venue, and cheaper session costs.

MLA London Strategic Commissioning Activities for 2006-07

Learning Links Placements offering up to 40 placements with support funding of up to £1800. Contact MLA London for details.
Initial Teacher Training (ITT) Pilot Projects
Museum and archive database survey of participating and non-participating schools
Youth consultation and youth-inclusion projects
2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade

SECTION THREE: CONSULTING WITH TEACHERS

Museum consultant, Alison James, provided practical notes on consultation methodology. Consultation can help museums rate the effectiveness of their services, tailor programming to their users’ needs, avoid wasting time and money, develop ideas for future planning, establish dialogues with teachers, and use feedback in funding applications, marketing and as an advocacy tool.

Effective consultation must start with a clearly defined aim. Before decided which consultation method/tool to use you must define the following:

What you want to find out
Why you want to find it out
How you are going to find it out
Who exactly you are going to ask
Who the information is for
How you are going to tell them
What you will do with the information

There are many different ways to consult with teachers. Choosing your methodology largely depends on the type of information your are seeking.

Questionnaires:
Interviews:
Meaning Mapping (blank paper with a central heading)
Advisory Panels
Focus Groups

Focus Groups:

This is probably the most effective method for consulting meaningfully with teachers with the bonus of potentially turning the group into an advisory panel. The main drawback is that the data is only qualitative. The group should consist of 6-10 people and last 1 to 1.5 hours. The session should be semi-structured using topic/question guide. It is best to have an objective facilitator to guide the discussion and someone else to do the note taking. Questions should be open-ended. Focus groups are particularly useful at early stage of planning a project/resource (i.e. front end evaluation)

Focus Groups: Strengths

Allows ideas to be discussed and developed
Opportunity to clarify and probe
Takes less time than one to one interviews
Provides data in ‘teachers’ own words’.
Build personal relationships

Focus Groups: Limitations

Small sample size – difficult to generalise
Time consuming to prepare, transcribe, analyse
Hard to get teachers to attend
Need to manage the group so one voice doesn’t dominate
Difficult to remain objective & accuracy is uncertain

Focus Groups: Format

Welcome and purpose
Introductions
Ground rules (turn off mobiles, confidentiality agreement)
Ice breaker (work in pairs, meaning maps, memory exercise – recall first museum experience, etc)
General questions
Specific questions
Close
Provide refreshments, breaks and incentive

Focus Groups: Managing the group

Be sure to use ‘teacher jargon’ – speak the right language
Set the tone - relaxed, open and honest
Clarify statements but don’t interrupt or explain
Follow up interesting lines of discussion, ask for examples
Pause 5 seconds after each comment
Ensure no one dominates/withdraws
Encourage different viewpoints “does everyone think that”
Maintain control and focus, manage timing
Bring group back to agenda when discussion wanders

Focus Groups: Questions

Use open questions (no more than 10)
Start with general, move to specific
Don’t assume they’ve used the service
Don’t ask leading questions
Ask one question at a time
Use projective technique “what do you think puts teachers off bringing groups”
Avoid ‘why?’, use ‘how?’ and ‘could you explain a little more’
Use prompts if no answers are forthcoming
Pilot questions in advance

Focus Groups: Other techniques

Personal meaning mapping
Short questionnaires
Gallery visit (post it note feedback)
Observation (using pilot resources)
Feedback on stimulus (text, images, etc)
Brainstorming using flipcharts
Prioritising list of ideas and issues
Statements for discussion
Sticky dot feedback (rating)

Focus Groups: recording

Note taker (comfortable for participants, easy of transcription, however, not much data collected, inexpensive)
Audio recorder (fairly comfortable for participants, fairly easy to transcribe, good amount of data collected, fairly inexpensive)
video recorder (uncomfortable for participants, difficult transcribe, excellent amount of data collected, expensive)
Always ask permission before recording and explain how material will be used.

Focus Groups: recruitment

Depends on purpose of and audience for the evaluation
You may want participants from different or similar types of schools
It is good to separate secondary from primary
Always invite more teachers than you need
Provide incentives (cash, voucher, supply cover, free education visit, loan box)

Focus Groups: analysis

Transcribe proceedings as soon as possible
Refer to original objectives
Identify themes/patterns/issues
Select quote that go together or contradict
Look for surprises and challenges
Use quotes to illustrate more general principles
Prepare final report/presentation/summary

Back to London Area page