"A True Sign of Learning": What College Students Learn About Teaching and Learning from a Museum Docent Program

Summary

Burke 101 is a museum program developed to provide undergraduate students at the University of Washington an opportunity to share their knowledge in a particular discipline. The program is organized around a course in which students work together to create hands-on, interactive activities for visitors using museum specimens. Observations of students’ interactions with visitors as well as analysis of student oral and written reflections indicate that initially students find their teaching experiences students in the museum galleries challenging and very different from teaching and learning practices in traditional classroom settings. Yet by the end of the course, many students report increased confidence in assuming a facilitator role, assessing visitor knowledge, and adjusting task challenges. These behaviors are associated with best practices in classroom teaching, as well as museum settings. Some student responses indicate that in teaching museum visitors, they have become more aware of their own learning in classroom settings. These reported changes have implications for students and instructors in the college classroom.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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