Greetings, Museum-L,
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The
Necessity of Making the Invisible Visible:
The
Challenge of Using Museums in Formal Education
The
Recently
museums have had unprecedented professional development opportunities to
interact with teachers at all grade levels and across all content areas. Most
of the interaction follows a “sensible” precedent of having experts
provide content to teachers through lectures or exhibits or working with
teachers in using content to make lesson plans. While getting content and
planning lessons are necessary for teaching, such professional development
interactions are hardly sufficient if the goal is improving students’
understanding and achievement.
In his talk,
Professor Robert Bain argues for and presents examples of a more dynamic model
of interaction with teachers. Drawing on experiences as classroom teacher,
historian, and scholar of history teaching and learning, Bain takes inspiration
from the television program, ‘Inside the Actors Studio’, to argue
for making the invisible visible.
Martin Creel
will describe the systemic changes that occurred in the Montgomery County
Public Schools’ curriculum as result of participation in a Teaching
American history grant.
About the
presenter:
Robert (Bob) Bain is Associate Professor of History and Social
Science Education at the
About the discussant:
Martin (Marty) Creel is a school system
administrator with Montgomery County Public Schools in
This program
is the second of two G. Brown Goode lectures looking at the research on
learning in formal and informal museum settings. It is part of the G. Brown
Goode Smithsonian Education Lecture series for professional development. Through
this series, named after the Smithsonian’s earliest proponent of museums
as educational institutions, Smithsonian staff can help keep abreast of
emerging developments in education pertaining to many aspects of their work,
from exhibit design to outreach in the schools. The series features programs
that bring together academic researchers and museum practitioners to examine
the roles museums play in developing the skills necessary for success in the 21st
century.
All Goode lectures are web cast and
archived for viewing at http://museumstudies.si.edu
Bruce C. Craig
Director of Research and Planning
http://museumstudies.si.edu