Educational Philosophy – Kaminski

My views on teaching and learning are ever changing and evolving. This is due to my passion to continue to learn and figure out what I want to do after graduating. As I am nearing the end of my graduate studies I have reflected back on my past experiences that have shaped the learner and educator I have become. In the past 4 years, I have been a student, archivist, historian, museum educator, security officer, private investigator, and world traveler. All of these experiences have shaped the way I approach different situations in my life and how I teach in history museums

Academically, I have studied and majored in two different fields and earned two different undergraduate degrees at Ohio State. Both degrees were Bachelors of Arts and my fields of study were history and anthropology. I continue to learn and am currently pursing a master’s degree in history with a specialization in public history. The classes and internships I have completed have provided me with the information and facts about many different subjects. I have learned about many conflicts and wars and how to present this information through different styles including easy to understand papers and presentations. The course work and classes I completed have taught me to always include background information to set up the context of a discussion before trying to explain a situation or topic. When background knowledge is left out it can leave potential learners confused and without an understanding of the topic or subject they were interested in.

Another source of my teaching inspiration aside from academia is from my employment in various jobs and positions I have held. I have worked in museums and archives as an educator, collector and processor of donated material, archivist, tour guide, and summer camp counselor. I have also worked as a private investigator and security officer. It is my experience with security and intelligence that have really shaped my educational philosophy. In this field you have to have people skills, be able to adapt to an ever-changing situation, and know what to do in order to stay in charge.

The lessons and experiences I have gained from my time in security and intelligence work have directly impacted my education, teaching and learning, as well as provide me with confidence to pursue my goals and objectives. In museum classes, tours, or any other social situation in the hallways learning is involved. New situations or unexpected topics and discussions are started that as a museum educator there is no way to prepare or expect. Being able to take charge and lead discussions as an educator is crucial to ensure that discussion does not get out of control and to ensure that incorrect information is not presented to an audience without correction. Confidence in my knowledge and having the ability to say that I do not know everything and may have to do research to find out answers that are asked of me is crucial to ensure my reputation and the museum’s integrity as a place of learning. Saying I don’t know something is difficult when a group or individual wants an answer.

As an educator, I try to position myself in ways that ensure that my exhibits and conversations speak to, and are understood by, visitors regardless of their education or background. Conversations should flow and relate to each individual because they are personalized and tailored to the particular group I am working with at the time. This requires people skills and the ability to read the audiences reactions to ensure that they understand.

My position of museum educators is to not be confined to working only in the museum’s physical space. I think that educators need to have a background of knowledge and experience and bring that knowledge to both the museum and the community. Museum visitors do not all share the same background and education level. And visitors do not want to struggle to connect and understand exhibits, displays, or staff. Museum educators can and should participate in outreach activities that take exhibits and lessons from the museum directly to the community.

A true educator and museum professional has to have the skills to share information with visitors in ways that the audience will accept and listen to them. These presentations should take the forms of discussions and not be lectures that only include facts. Creating discussion and engaging with learners is vital and a skill that is difficult to teach and learn. Creativity and confidence are important. Having the confidence to adapt previous experiences to new and different situations enables the educator to engage with learners and audience in many divers settings

My thoughts are that the role of educators in museums is very important in shaping the museum visitor’s experience. One of the primary purposes of the educator at the museum is to enable the visitors to experience and understand the period, events, and facts on display. I love working in museums because I am able to use objects and artifacts to help audiences see what was available at the time and used by the people that lived through it. This is especially helpful when teaching military history in a military museum. I love using objects in my lessons and allowing people to see, feel, smell, and touch real and reproductive material objects. This experience really helps learners understand a topic. For example, I have used reproduction artifacts from the American Civil War in my discussion at a museum. It is easy as an educator to say that soldiers would march many miles in a day and that it was difficult and hard on the soldiers. Audience members take this information and often think that it was hard because soldiers were tired from fighting or far from home and becoming home sick. This miscommunication between the audience and myself is easily clarified when objects are used in the same conversation. I have paired this conversation with reproduction shoes with a wooden bottom that have nails holding it to the top leather or hide. I tell my audiences to put their hands in the shoe and feel around. I pass around the pair and ask them which one is the left and which is the right. They soon learn that there is only one shoe and that it could be worn on either the left or right foot. This leaves my audiences understanding that hard and difficult to travel miles is not because of the distance traveled or because the soldiers are far from home. Instead they understand now that the equipment and gear are painful and unpleasant to wear while marching or fighting at the time. This is the purpose of educators in museum spaces. To ensure that the audience leaves with a better understanding and idea of what happened in the past than when they started the tour.

Some goals and ideals that I have in museum spaces are to expand museum staff interaction with visitors. This can be done with direct interaction and conversations with visitors or indirectly through volunteers who have been trained by staff to represent the museum and interact with visitors when staff members are not available. This is why I have worked with education departments and have created guides and manuals for docents and volunteers. These help ensure that the museum professional and staff members’ interpretations and discussions with visitors are correct, consistent, spoken with authority, and backed with resources and information from the history field. Additionally, museums can and should be active in the community. This can be accomplished with speaking events or traveling exhibits that are taken to schools, libraries, or other community centers.

My educational and interpretive strategies focus on objects. I believe a museum needs objects that are original and authentic. Museums have cut back the amount of material on display to ensure that visitors are not overwhelmed by excessive amounts of objects on display. This trend has continued into the technology age with actual artifacts and objects being substituted with computers and other interactive displays. I believe that these may be beneficial for some people’s education, but they need to be used in appropriate areas and not become the focus of a museum’s exhibits. Technology easily distracts visitors and is a quick solution to ensure that messages and information are available to visitors. This recent trend is a substitution to the underlying problem in museums. Displays are becoming to complex or are not organized in ways that actually relay and teach visitors the information and therefore another medium, technology, is needed.

This leads to a future where it is not impossible to imagine completely online museums that visitors can tour without ever having to leave their houses. My idea for museums in the future is to stress material objects and increase the use and interaction with museum visitors and objects. Future museum patrons will grow up in a technology age and world. They will be unaware of things like typewriters, records, VHS tapes, pens and parchment, and other similar items of the time periods covered by museums. Seeing these items behind museum glass will inform the visitor that these things existed, but leave them wondering why or how they were used. In the future, I want visitors to be able to use and type on typewriters or similar objects. This is only possible if objects continue to remain in museums and curators/educators allow visitors to use and interact with the collection.

Overall, my education philosophy is object oriented with hands on learning. Seeing and reading about objects can only teach a small amount of information. In order to fully understand objects and museums patrons will need the opportunity to interact with objects.

Carnegie Museum of Art

The museum that will be discussed in this website analysis for how the museum presents education/interpretation/engagement is the Carnegie Museum of Art located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All information discussed is from the museum website.

What specific opportunities are available for learners?

There are several opportunities that the museum offers for learners interested in art. The mission statement of the museum is to create experiences that connect people to art, ideas and one another. The specific opportunities available vary depending on the age group. This variation is in part to scale the opportunity to the specific age group and create activities that will interest, but not overwhelm the visitor. For adults the opportunities include tours, lectures and talks, screening of films/musical artist, classes/workshops, late night events/nights at the museum, and yoga. Kids and families have the opportunities to take part in summer camps, use apps, and have studio instruction. Teens have the least opportunity of all visitors and are limited to only workshops.

Schools have their own opportunities that differ from those opportunities listed above. Opportunities include guided tours and workshops. The age group for participants range from elementary school all the way to the collegiate level. Reservations for these tours is easy and available online through the website.

What do these experiences say about the museum’s educational philosophy?

These events show that the education department is aware of the various interests of different visitors and have created programs to maximize interest and attract visitors. The education department has also created events that take place in the museum space without making the artwork the main focus. This shows that the educational philosophy is very adaptive to help create the necessary financial support that the museum needs to continue operating. This also shows that the museum’s educational philosophy is willing to settle on higher education and stepping away from being an exclusive venue in order to attract more visitors.

The experiences also show that the museum has developed a philosophy that allows the museum to capitalize on the success of late nights, and nights at the museum. Many similar programs have developed in the museum world to mimic and capitalize on the success of films like Night at the Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What particular audiences seem to be served through theses programs?

The particular audiences that seem to be served through theses programs appear to be adults almost exclusively. The adults have the most opportunities to participate. The adults also benefit from the opportunities that are available only for kids and teens. These include having summer camps that can help fill kids days when school is not in session and having events and activities at the museum to keep their children engaged and interest in the museum. These activities are also designed to keep kids from running around and distracting other patrons.

How many/what kinds of educators work or volunteer at the museum?

The educators for this museum are a combination of staff employed by the museum and volunteers. The education department is a multi person department. This is based on the fact that they are currently hiring an education program assistant. The museum also has several volunteers who serve as docents. Specific numbers and the education background of the staff and volunteers is not stated on the website. This leads me to the idea that volunteers only need an interest and willingness to be taught the needed skills by the education department to become a docent.

How does this program appear to respond to the particular geography/population/community in which it is situated?

The museum serves a large audience that is not just local residents, but also global audience. The museum boasts about how large of an audience it attracts from all over the world. The museum website does not offer specific plans or contact information for setting up tours or field trips. The website needs to be updated to help encourage more visitors to visit and spread the awareness of the various activates and events that the museum hosts. The museum does understand that a lot of visitors work during the week and that many potential patrons are not willing to pay full admission. The location of the museum is in Oakland, a close walk to the colleges in the area and close to lower income families living in the same area. The museum offers lower “discount” prices for college students and free admission on Sundays for the general public.