Brenda

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> 1.  What type of educational training do you feel best prepares museum
> professionals for work in museum education at an art museum?
> Unusual backgrounds - I was trained as a curator/archeaologist/material culturalist.  I spent my first job in attics numbering stuff and hated it so much I developed an educational program for teachers and students.  My feeling was that the importance of the objects was what
> people could learn from them.  I was also trained to work in history museums, worked in history for 7 years and switched to art museums, where I have been for the past 11 years
>
> 2.  In your experience, what effect have different educational backgrounds had
> upon programming or teaching methods?

I learned to work with object analysis in history museums, using methods of material culture questioning developing by Thomas Schlereth.  I have transeferrred these methods to what I do in art museums.  I also transferred some of the very interactive methods from history/living
history - we spend a great deal of time on guided discussion, gallery activities and art production - aiming for the best learning experience possible for all learning styles.  Information from Howard Gardner and Project MUSE has also influenced my work.

Since I was not trained as an educator, I read everything I could on education , early childhood learning, learning styles, audience research, etc.  All of this has been invaluable to my work.  When I began working in art museums I joined the National Art Education Association.  I
have also been a very active member of AAM's EdCOM and MER .  All of these are great resources for museums educators.

Kathrine Schlageck
Beach Museum of Art

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