CPD for Museum Staff
It can be difficult for museum staff to be up-to-date with current developments in the National Curriculum and examination specifications as well as in the kinds of approaches and teaching techniques being used in history department schools. Day or half-day courses (such as that at Segedunum in November 2006) provide this kind of up-dating and put an emphasis on involvement by asking staff to take part in role-plays and other active learning techniques as if they were the pupils. Such techniques can be used on site or in out-reach work.
CPD for the NE Regional Hub - An Example
Museums and Schools: Sharing Good Practice
This half-day course was attended by education officers from a wide range of museums and sites plus other staff, including front-of-house staff.
The themes of the course were:
- What developments are taking place in school history?
- What’s good in school history?
- How can museums use activities in-house or for outreach?
- How can museums help make the good even better?
- How can the partnership increase museum use?
The structure of the session interleaved demonstration of activities with information on current developments and discussion of the themes listed above. The activities demonstrated, using the course delegates in the roles of pupils, were:
- An evidence activity - the Mystery of the Skeletons
- Timelines and living graphs - developing chronological understanding
- Peopling a site - The Dissolution of the Monasteries
- Bringing people alive - Hot-seating techniques
