Starting the field trip

Student excursions or field trips to museums or galleries featuring exhibitions of art, design or craft can be place heavy demands on students, teachers, parents and museum or gallery staff in terms of organisational requirements and expense. Teachers realise that these excursions or field trips can give students experiences that provide vital information as well as educational inspiration for arts courses. However, student responses to a particular excursion can be difficult to predict. Students can return to the classroom enthusiastic and energised, excited by what they have observed and learnt. Unfortunately, some field trips can be disastrous. Students can find the gallery or museum environment to be physically and socially intimidating, and some students can spend their time in an exhibition area as reluctant visitors, anxious to leave as soon as possible.

This blog seeks to examine the development of the museum education experience for students from primary, elementary or preparatory classes, middle school classes and senior school classes. Why should we devote time to an analysis of the museum education experience for school students? Some preservice Education courses for undergraduate or postgraduate students interested in teaching careers devote attention to issues related to museum education, but it can be difficult to access to such coursework. An examination of issues related to museum education can be confined to the preparation of teachers in specialist areas, such as Art Education for middle or senior classes, or only made available in specific elective courses that are offered on a semi-regular basis. Some generalist primary, elementary or preparatory school teachers discover that they are required to participate on a regular basis in arts education only after they have completed a teacher training course that never examined arts education in great detail. Arts education and specifically art, design and craft education programs for school students in elementary, middle or senior schools are not always compulsory sections of the teaching timetable, so some elementary students may be able visit museums and galleries on a regular basis, and some senior school students with almost no previous exposure to museum or gallery environments may suddenly find themselves considering enrolment in an elective Art, Design or Craft course that requires museum or gallery field trips.

Teachers and parents may hope that museums and galleries will provide inhouse educational support services, so that students can receive guidance when they arrive in an exhibition area. It is true that many museums and galleries operate excellent education sections, staffed by highly qualified and experienced educators with specialist subject expertise and museum training. These museum or gallery staff members are prepared to provide consultation services for teachers before and after a visit from a student group. They will arrange for students to be met at the doors of the museum or gallery for a carefully structured guided tour that will establish a platform for further educational activities after the return to the school classroom. However, many museums and galleries simply cannot provide the resources for the regular employment of such specialist staff. Attempts may be made to provide support through the efforts of specialist art, design or craft curators who do not have teacher training or teaching experience. Volunteer guides or docents who have undertaken preparatory inhouse museum or gallery activities may also help to develop attempts to provide educational support. Volunteer guides or docents are the invaluable backbone of many an important museum or gallery, but some guides or docents may have very little life experience with large groups of school students in specific age groups, and guiding large student groups can be a very daunting experience at times, even for very experienced teachers. Finally, many smaller university, community-operated, associational or commercial museums or galleries staging important displays may welcome interest from teachers and school students, but these museums or galleries simply cannot provide any form of educational support. Visits from school groups are welcome, but a teacher, or a school administrative staff member or a parent must provide any assistance for student visitors.

This blog will attempt to examine the ways in which teachers, school administrative staff, parents and museum or gallery staff could provide school students with support when they visit an exhibition. Hopefully, the blog will provide ideas and techniques suitable for field trip organisers to develop positive educational opportunities for adults and school children involved in museum or gallery visits.

An introduction

This blog will examine issues related to museum education programs for school students, art education archives and records management, and historical research for art, design and craft education.