The Museum Educator's Manual: Educators Share Successful Techniques

by Anna Johnson, Kimberly A Huber, Nancy Cutler

The Museum Educator's Manual addresses the role museum educators play in today's museums from an experience-based perspective. Seasoned museum educators author each chapter, emphasizing key programs along with case studies that provide successful examples, and demonstrate a practical foundation for the daily operations of a museum education department, no matter how small.
The book covers:
This second edition interweaves technology into every aspect of the manual and includes two entirely new chapters, one on Museums - An Educational Resource for Schools and another on Active Learning in Museums. With invaluable checklists, schedules, organizational charts, program examples, and other how-to documents included throughout, The Museum Educator's Manual is a 'must have' book for any museum educator.

Genres: Museums, Museology, Nonfiction, Textbooks

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[char]

a nice collection of essays, especially regarding the logistical side of things. I would have appreciated more about the actual implementation of programs (eg pedagogy) and things more relevant to other, newer, smaller, etc museums. but otherwise very nice!

[Rachel]

Skimmed this time, but will be coming back to this one as a good resource. Be sure to get the updated version.

[Tiff]

Very dense but insightful! I liked the examples

[Rachel Sheffield]

A great starting place for museum professionals.

[Jennifer]

I figured it was time for some career-specific professional development reading. This was the first book I found that looked promising. It's definitely niche -- books are hard to find and I had to interlibrary loan request this one.

This wasn't all directly relatable to what I do. Most of the people writing essays here are from more traditional curated exhibit museums. Some essays were a bit of a slog. But I read every word and wasn't sorry that I did. I ended up with a full page dense with notes. Examples I wanted to try, think over, or discuss -- ideas tangentially sparked by something I'd read, etc.

A greater variety of voices would have been appreciated. Not just because I wanted a voice from a hands-on and/or a children's museum, but because by the end I was thinking to myself, "Yes, the Desert Botanical Museum is awesome, I know," and "Seriously? If I have to read about the Lewis and Clark expedition one more time..."

Still. Good ideas. And tons of example forms that would be very useful to anyone looking to start a program from scratch.

[Fom Singapore]

The Museum Educator's Manual is divided into three main parts: Training and Management, Programs and Outreach, and Working with Others. The book is designed to be used by museum educators in a variety of museums (history, art, science, anthropology, botany...) and serves a great starting point for running practical programs, engaging the communities surrounding a museum and providing teaching tools in a museum environment. Strategies, techniques, sample forms and activities all contribute to making this book a very good reference material for new educators and volunteer leaders alike.

[Gort]

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[Dave]

Another good how-to book for anyone who has thoughts about working on the exhibit or education side of a museum.