AT A GLANCE
Trainee teachers from UEL planned and delivered a one day museum visit for a group of 15 Gifted and Talented Year 8 pupils from Seven Kings High School.
ITT PROVIDER
Higher Education Institution: University of East London (UEL)
ITT Course: PGCE
No. of trainees involved: 8
Year group: Year 8 pupils
Subject area: Science, Design Technology, Modern Foreign Languages
Logistics: The project was carried out over the three terms of the PGCE programme and formed part of an assessed element ‘Subject Knowledge Assignment’.
SETTING
Name of setting: The British Museum
Provision for learners: Education department, Clore Education Centre, Ford Centre for young visitors
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
- To identify opportunities for pupils to learn out of school
- To plan and deliver out of class work which extends and consolidates pupil learning
- To work as a team, working with colleagues and sharing the development of effective practice.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Project extended over three terms:
Term 1: Museum orientation visit by trainees. Seminar input from museum educators who then led focussed activities in three galleries.
Term 2: Planning visit by trainees to the museum to prepare for pupil visit (practical arrangements and activities/resource preparation).
Term 3: Orientation session in school with pupils preceding a one day museum visit.
Trainees were responsible for planning and delivering a one day museum visit for a group of fifteen gifted and talented year 8 pupils from Seven Kings High School. They created a theme ‘Museum Detectives’ for the pupil visit based in the Enlightenment Gallery and designed activities with associated resources including a ‘wiki’ for collaborative writing to support pupils in their quest to discover ‘who murdered Ptolemy?’.
Trainees liaised with the school and the museum over the course of the year and used the UEL virtual learning environment and face-to-face meetings to share ideas and to produce a pupil booklet.
Prior to the museum visit two trainees delivered an orientation session to pupils in school to introduce them to the museum collection. They practised skills such as observation and categorisation within the classroom so that they were prepared to work in the more informal museum setting.
The format of the visit included starter and plenary activities and a main activity which prepared pupils to produce a piece of creative writing. This was completed after the visit using wiki technology http://museumdetective.pbwiki.com/.
OUTCOMES
At the start of the project trainees were largely inexperienced in planning for pupil learning and tended to rely on museum educators and tutors for ideas on how to exploit the museum collection effectively. The first orientation visit was timed for the start of the programme to allow a long lead in time for trainees to share and develop their ideas as a group and to initiate contact with museum staff. The pupil visit was considered to be very successful by all participants. Trainees created a detailed plan for the day, managing the practical arrangements and appropriate learning activities. The trainees distributed tasks amongst themselves according to individual strengths and interests such as liaison with the school, liaison with the museum, resource production including project t-shirts, certificates and ‘goodie bags’ for pupils, and the creation of the wiki.
Tutors had experience of the project with two previous cohorts of trainees and had learned from this that ongoing collaboration was key to success, particularly as trainees have little face-to-face contact when on placement. A discussion area was set up within the UEL virtual learning environment and tutors posted regular items of interest and discussion topics to establish the group and maintain momentum. Trainees built on this by arranging planning meetings during university based elements of the programme. Tutors were available for advice, but deliberately left trainees to operate autonomously and own the project.
Museum educators valued the demonstrable impact of their input as trainees put what they had learned into practice with pupils. Some trainees used the project as a basis for an assignment, and their presentations and written reflective pieces were further evidence of their professional development.
SURPRISES
The trainees chose to use the Enlightenment Gallery as the basis for the activities as it gave them the opportunity to interpret an old-fashioned museum collection using their own ideas.
The pupils were surprised and pleased to participate in a visit which involved active learning rather than information gathering and worksheets. The wiki was a novel way for them to share their pieces of creative writing and worked extremely well.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
- Forward planning between museum, university and school with clear aims and approach identified
- Quality input from experienced museum educators and opportunity for trainees to try out activities in the galleries for themselves
- Ongoing collaboration between all parties, particularly amongst the group of trainees
- High degree of trainee autonomy facilitated
- Identification of suitable group of pupils and link teacher in school.
