The Art of Teaching in the Museum By RIKA BURNHAM and ELLIOTT KAI-KEE SUMMARY
The article talks about how students learn more effectively in an environment full of so much knowledge to offer and how teaching in such an environment and coming up with effective and efficient teaching methods is in itself an art to be acknowledged.
In a museum which has so much knowledge of art and history to offer to its visitors it is much more practical to teach students about famous pieces from the history. In a museum the students are invited to come up and look more closely at a painting and are able to be taught in more detail about the painting ax well as the reason for studying it as compared to when they are taught of the painting in a class room with only references to the painting portraying a vague image in their minds.
The authors describe with such passion how in the environment of a museum, an educator is able to successfully teach the students about history and sculptures of the Roman times etc. and how the students develop a keen interest in learning about such things in the presence of the actual sculptures around them as they are able to observe everything up close and look into the detail of the sculptures and the gestures and take notes as if they were studying an actual person. Hence the overall teaching method becomes so much more effective.
Every detail in the museum tells a story that the students are ready to hear and learn from at the spot. The article interestingly displays many examples of “the art of teaching in a museum” and how the students take into the learning environment and absorb more knowledge as opposed to a generic classroom environment.