Yorkshire Regional Museums Hub Evaluation of Education Plan And
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Yorkshire Regional Museums Hub Evaluation of Education Plan and Specialisms Fund Final Report May 2006 Evaluation team: Alison James, Helen O’Riain and Nicky Boyd Contents Page 1.0 Summary 4 2.0 Context to the report and our approach 8 3.0 Conclusions, summary of findings and common themes 10 3.1 Common themes 10 3.2 Different methods of delivering museum learning 20 3.3 ‘Hard to reach’ groups 24 3.4 E-learning 29 3.5 Conclusions 33 4.0 Recommendations and ideas 36 5.0 Detailed findings: case studies 38 5.1 Case studies on different methods of delivery 38 5.2 Case studies for ‘hard to reach’ groups 55 5.3 Case studies for e-learning 76 Complete data to be found in Appendices A-C 6.0 Appendices 94 A Findings charts for different delivery methods 1 B Findings charts for ‘hard to reach’ groups 18 C Findings charts for e-learning 47 D Overview of all projects 73 E Analysis guidelines 76 F Guidelines for analysing meaning maps 77 G Generic teacher feedback form 78 H Evaluation toolkit 80 I Training programme 81 J Staff reflections on the project 83 2 Hub Vision Statement We aspire to maximise the creative potential of museums to inspire and excite learners of all ages. To do this we will: • Work with different learners and providers to develop and deliver inspiring, enjoyable and creative cultural experiences so they have meaning for our everyday lives. • Offer an inclusive approach to all our learning spaces and collections. • Develop and sustain positive partnerships internally and externally with individuals, groups and organisations to share and progress ideas about learning. • Build recognition that quality learning is central to the development and delivery of an accessible, cohesive and user focused museum service. 3 1.0 Summary Introduction There were three main strands to the project, to evaluate the Education Plan: • the effectiveness of different methods of delivering learning provision • work with hard to reach groups, particularly secondary school pupils And to evaluate: • the work, relating to e-learning, undertaken through the Specialisms Fund Professional development and capacity-building The approach taken by the evaluation team was to empower staff to undertake evaluation themselves, thus developing skills and confidence in this area; ensuring they felt true ownership of the findings and encouraging sustainability beyond the life of the project. Training, data collection and analysis The evaluation team made familiarisation visits to different staff within the five Hub services (see Appendix D) to identify training needs. The training programme, which was delivered at the end of 2005, included: • discussing Inspiring Learning for All and setting learning outcomes • discussing and selecting appropriate evaluation tools • learning about sampling and how to ask effective questions It also focused on particular evaluation tools such as observation skills, meaning mapping and focus groups; particular audiences such as young people and other hard to reach groups as well as ways of evaluating e-learning. The services then delivered their projects and collected evidence of learning impact. This evidence was analysed at a series of analysis workshops, supported by the evaluation team, held at the five services during March 2006. Common themes Some common themes occurred across all three strands and affected or were affected by some of the thirteen projects. The themes are detailed below under Inspiring Learning for All’s four key principles: • People: providing more effective learning opportunities • Places: creating inspiring and accessible learning environments • Partners : building creative learning partnerships • Policies, Plans and Performance: placing learning at the heart of the museum People: providing more effective learning opportunities • Inclusion, entitlement and consultation: engaging previous non-visiting groups • Increased self–esteem and confidence in learning; teamwork and social skills; understanding new concepts; changes in attitude to learning and specific topics. Places: creating inspiring and accessible learning environments • Development of positive attitudes towards visiting galleries, museums and other sites (pupils, teachers and young people) • Museum staff using different environments to provide inspiration, and drawing on them in activities/ resources in innovative ways 4 Partners: building creative learning partnerships • Professional development for teachers/ youth workers • Closer relationships with schools and youth services/ groups • Working with partners to provide valuable learning outcomes for participants and partners alike, in new and exciting ways. The cross-service approach to the training provided opportunities for staff from all services to become familiar with each others’ projects and to identify common ground, thus facilitating future collaboration. The e-learning work in particular has enabled staff across the services to share experiences. Policies, Plans and Performance: placing learning at the heart of the museum • Museums working to increase participants’ understanding of other cultures and to help build bridges between different communities • Professional development of museum staff, both through the delivery of projects to new audiences and through the evaluation programme Different methods of delivering museum learning Taking the range of different delivery methods (see Appendix D) into consideration it is not possible to say that one is more effective or more likely to result in learning than another. The decision to deliver learning through a museum education officer, a freelancer, front of house staff, artists, actors or enablers depends on the target audience and their needs; the skills, experience and resources available and the learning objectives of the particular project. All approaches have their merits and the best solution is to have a range of possibilities available and to select the one best suited to the specific project and audience at the time. For example, e-learning and creative activities can be particularly effective with teenagers and young people; drama and object handling work well with all children, but especially those with special needs or English as a second language or disaffected young people. Outreach is successful with non-users of the museum or gallery. ‘Hard to reach’ groups Even with the considerable range of the participants’ abilities and motivations, cultures and backgrounds, results clearly demonstrate what can be achieved when the conditions are right. The most important factors in achieving fruitful outcomes with challenging groups were found to be as follows: • Strong partnerships with good communication, commitment and mutual understanding (all partners should gain from the project in some way). • High quality relationships between those delivering and the participants. • Clear expectations and boundaries combined with flexibility in delivery. • Always having alternative resources ‘up your sleeve’. • Good advocacy to persuade partners of the benefits to be gained (eg. making it clear to teachers what is to be gained in terms of social skills, teamwork, etc.) • Using e-learning to enhance the experience where appropriate. • Removal of barriers to visits (eg. transport, food, going out to them first). • The ability to weather the storms – it’s worth it! 5 E-learning Because of the timescale of the development of the learning centres and e-learning resources across the hub museums, the evaluation that took place was formative in nature. It was not therefore possible to evaluate whether the museum learning spaces and resources were effective in encouraging visits from target users groups as these were still in development during the evidence-gathering phase of this programme. • Formative evidence from some of the e-learning projects has shown that they are already being effective in encouraging children to engage with the curriculum. • The online learning resources offer schools a unique stand-alone resource or a resource to support a site visit which can be extremely useful to KS3 teachers and pupils in overcoming barriers to using museum resources. • Project staff have already consulted widely with a range of groups to develop their e-learning resources with good partnerships already in place at this formative stage. • The creation of resources through the Hub partnership (supported at all stages by the designated hub e-learning manager) has added value to the individual projects because ‘most of the e-learning resources were conceived as the starting point for real hands-on delivery projects’ (Hub e-learning manager). The e- learning resources were always conceived as part of an integrated learning package. • The creation of these resources has been pivotal in supporting the development of a Hub partnership: ‘developing e-learning resources has created a platform for everyone to work and learn together, sharing experiences and challenges. The opportunity to contribute directly to the website has united not just the Hub partnerships but all Yorkshire museums who have an interest in e-learning’ (Hub e-learning manager) Conclusions There is ample evidence which demonstrates the impact of museum learning on educational achievement specifically, and on learning in its broadest sense. The training undertaken by Hub museum staff has embedded ILfA as a useful framework for evaluation, a means of measuring a good part of the learning achieved and of reporting more precisely the impacts that projects often have but that are so difficult