Loan Star
Museums Journal: Vol 102 No 1: January 2002: pp26-27
by Joy McAlpine: Project Manager
There is a pernicious myth in the museum world that if you lend museum objects to
schools they will not visit your museum. It is true is that the majority of teachers
prefer loans to museum visits. But by using these museum objects in the classroom,
teachers and schoolchildren are motivated to visit museums.
This was one of the key findings of a project, funded by the Department for Education
and Skills, that evaluated Reading Museum Service's schools loan service. The study was
unique in its focus on the use of museum loans in the classroom and in the breadth and
depth of its qualitative evaluation in 24 primary and secondary schools. Methodologies
used to collect data included teacher interviews; classroom observations of loans in use;
interviews with students ten months after the lessons; teacher focus groups and
questionnaires.
A potentially alarming finding for museums that do not loan objects to schools is that
90% of teachers prefer loans to museum visits. Interviews revealed that teachers viewed
museum visits as a difficult extra-curricular option because of the constraints of time,
money and the curriculum. One school had cancelled its two previous visits because of lack
of funds for transport. But the cost of travel was by no means the only issue. Teachers
felt equally prohibited by the stress of organising and supervising museum visits.
Finding 33 and Finding 34
"Visits are logistically horrendous" one teacher said. "When you take
them out it is stressful" said another. There is a general feeling that there is
pressure to guarantee children's behaviour in museums. Some teachers were not allowed to
go on visits because of the diktat of the Headteacher or because students could not get
permission from their parents. The length of visits in the context of a demanding
curriculum was also seen as a barrier. "A visit would be three quarters of a
day" said one teacher. "You can only do so much follow up on a trip," was
another response. These are the factors that prevent museum visits.
Museum loans were perceived as easy to integrate with school culture and a powerful
focus for developing whole class learning across the curriculum. Teachers noted that loans
"target what you want to say" and "focus learning". One teacher
highlighted the fact that loans provide one of the very few stimuli that can create whole
class discussion for students whose first language is not English. Others said: "We
can use them when we want to - they give us more access to objects," and "We get
a lot more out of it - we get maximum use out of the objects".
Finding 7, Finding 39 and Finding 40
Not only were loans incorporated into interactive displays in shared school spaces but
they were used by an average of 140 students in 11 lessons in each school over the two to
three week loan period. Teachers pointed out "there is definitely more flexibility
with loans" as they could "get things out again and approach them in a different
way". Although in the past, loans have been presented as history resources, teachers
currently describe their use in almost every area of the national curriculum including
citizenship. Loans are also not reliant on financial contribution from parents.
Finding 9 and Finding 10
The fact that teachers prefer loans to visits does not mean loans prevent them from
visiting museums. The reverse is true. In the survey, 55 per cent of teachers said the
loans encouraged them to visit the Museum of Reading and other museums. Comments such as:
"It makes me want to go to a museum" or "I know some children have visited
the museum after using the loans - and not just the Reading museum" demonstrate this.
Of the 45 per cent of teachers who were not encouraged to visit the museum, 30 per cent
said the loans did not particularly prevent or encourage them to visit and 20 per cent
said a visit would not be an option because of the barriers already mentioned. Teachers
clearly do not view loans as substitutes for the museum visit but see them as a whole
different experience. Loans don't prevent me from making visits" said a secondary
schoolteacher in Berkshire. "It's a whole different experience. Going to a museum is
about building the desire to see those sorts of things and to create lifetime habits.
Loans are a different way of doing it."
Finding 35
Also, why is it still seen as vital that people always go into the museum building? Many
of our buildings are in need of further funding to create appropriate spaces for learning.
In this new age of outreach and a redefinition of museum usage in performance indicators
(a web hit is a visit) - surely loans are the museum in the classroom?
Loans should not be viewed as a threat to museums. They are an opportunity that can be
exploited to the full benefit of museums and schools. What we have is the potential for a
match between the service and the audience - one that broadens the options for a cultural
and creative education, both within the classroom and in the museum.
"A week after we saw the loan I brought my family in to the museum and asked to
see the [model of Stephenson's] Rocket. Then I told them what I knew about it," said
a year six student from Berkshire.
Why do schools order loans?
Teachers are convinced of the power of learning from objects in the classroom context. The
evaluation of the school loans service at the Museum of Reading found 75 per cent of
teachers had collected their own objects for teaching. But the majority of these
collections lacked quality and authenticity. A Greek-tourist plant holder used to teach
pupils about Ancient Greece is an example.
Finding 19
This lack of quality may have contributed to the main motivation for requesting loan
boxes, which is the importance of learning from primary sources. This was identified by
all the teachers. The report found 92 per cent of teachers viewed learning from objects as
equally or more important than learning from books. The findings show the value teachers
place on learning from objects and the potential for museums to support this through
loans.
Finding 23, Finding 24, Finding 25 and Finding 26
Many of the students, who were interviewed ten months after lessons with loans, said
they found it easier to remember these lessons: "With objects, its a lot easier [to
remember] - you can imagine as well," said a primary school student in Berkshire.
"You can actually feel them and see them"
Finding 79
The imagination figured highly in student responses. The study found 75 per cent of the
students remembered what they imagined when they first saw the loans. "We actually
got a real feel of what it might be like from the objects," said another Berkshire
primary school student. "If you look at pictures you imagine what it was like for
them. But when you have the objects you imagine what it would be like for you and how you
would feel".
Finding 74
Many other findings from the project underline the fact that loans clearly provide a
creative pathway to learning for students of all abilities within the formal education
setting. Teachers used loans in nine areas of the curriculum, but they were most effective
when the processes were creative, such as in creative writing, 3D art and drama. Another
unexpected outcome was that male students with low scores in literacy and numeracy
remembered more objects than any other student grouping.
Finding 8, Finding 15 and Finding 62
What remains to be seen is what would happen if the museum sector responded to these
experiences with equal conviction of the power of loans. How deeply ingrained could
learning from objects become in the creative and cultural future of the formal education
system?
For further information please explore the following findings:
Finding 33: Have you ever brought your students on a visit to
the museum?
Finding 34: If you had to make a choice between free loans in
the classroom or free visits to the museum which would you prefer and why?
Finding 7: Which curriculum areas do you use the loan
objects to support?
Finding 39: Which curriculum area was being supported by the
loans?
Finding 40: Were links made with other curriculum areas by
the teacher? What links, if any, were there with other subject areas?
Finding 9: How often are loan objects incorporated as a
focus for specific learning tasks in the classroom?
Finding 10: How many students do a specific learning task in
direct relation to the artefacts over a half term period?
Finding 35: Do the loans encourage you to visit the
museum?
Finding 19: If the school has its own collection of artefacts
what are they and why do you collect them?
Finding 23: Why would teachers order from a loan service?
Finding 24: How important is learning from objects?
Finding 25: Is learning objects more, equal or less important
than learning from books?
Finding 26: How important is having access to a loan service?
Finding 79: Which did the students remember more - the
objects or the books? Why?
Finding 74: What did the students imagine when they saw the
loans?
Finding 8: Can you expand on how the loans support the
creative and imaginative elements of the curriculum?
Finding 15: What's the best thing you've ever done with a
loan object?
Finding 62: Were any gender or ability differences obvious in
the number of objects which the students remembered?
|
