Heritage Education in Practice - ARC00111M

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Module summary

Heritage education services are now an important part of heritage organisations, especially in museums but also more widely. This module will look at the theoretical and practical basis for the work of heritage education or learning officers and will provide a basis for how to create good learning experiences in heritage settings. Students will work in groups with Education Officers at local museums to create a learning resource tailored to their education programme for use with schools.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Spring Term 2022-23

Module aims

Education is an important part of heritage management and interpretation. Many museums and other heritage organisations offer programmes for schools. A lot of work has been done over the last 20 years to ensure that programmes are of good quality and deliver meaningful learning outcomes. The module will give students:

• familiarity with the theories underlying good education in a heritage context;

• an understanding of how to assess the quality of heritage education;

• experience of designing educational resources for schools in collaboration with museum partners.

Module learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students should understand:

• the key elements of education theory;

• the school curriculum in England;

• methods of assessing education quality at heritage settings;

• problems and issues involved in creating heritage education programmes;

• the range of classroom and site-based educational resources online and in print;

• where education sits within heritage management.

and be able to:

• critique academic writing about heritage education;

• critique education materials produced by heritage sites;

• assess heritage education in action or assess the worth of educational resources;

• develop appropriate educational materials for a heritage site;

• work as part of a team and yet meet differing aims and objectives.

Module content

We will begin with a look at education theory and how this can inform the work of heritage sites. We will also look at the nature of the school curriculum in England as an example of how this governs what can and cannot be offered. Museum education practice will be described in order to show how we might assess the quality of our work. We will look at examples of the range of classroom and site-based educational resources online and in print and critique these for their content and effectiveness. The key skill will be to work in a team to develop actual resources for a heritage site or museum in Yorkshire.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

Pass/fail

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

Feedback will be available within 20 working days.

Indicative reading

Clark, G., 1943. Education and the study of man. Antiquity 17 (67), 113-121.

Hein, George, E., 2011. Museum Education. In Sharon Macdonald (ed.), A Companion to Museum Studies. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 340-352.

Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, 2007. Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance. Abingdon: Routledge.