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Lynn,

Base on my experience and studies I have done with school groups, I think 
you have summarized key elements in making school group experiences positive 
and memorable--for school visitors and other visitors too. Bravo!

This may be redundant, but another element can be a separate school entrance 
with those magic elements, space and staff, that allow teachers and 
chaperones to organize their groups before entering the exhibit areas.

Watching visitors in a recent study, it again became apparent to me, once 
again, that there are "museuming skills" that people learn. Thanks to Diane 
Miller at the St. Louis Science Center for first making me aware of this 
while we were watching videotape of a family group interaction. She pointed 
out that the families in the tape were following some inexplicit social 
"rules" that people who do not regularly go to museums may not know.  These 
include non-verbal signals such as standing just far enough back to be 
visible and indicate "we're waiting" but giving another group time to finish 
an engagement.  It also involves one person in the group, stepping in to 
"claim" the exhibit as the other group finishes--and doing that confidently, 
know it is okay to do.  "Good waiting behaviors" also appear to include 
watching how others use the exhibit, reading labels, and recognizing the 
elements of the experience to you are ready to begin when the exhibit opens 
up. "Bad behavior" includes joining another group without asking permission 
(even if permission is just a smile or head nod that it's okay). 
Developmentally, late childhood (7 to 11 years old approximately) is an age 
very focused on "fairness and rules." It seems to me it would be productive, 
as part of pre-visit experiences, to make some of the inexplicit "museuming 
rules" explicit for school groups. These modes of behavior have developed 
because they allow groups of strangers to share public space. We think 
children already know rules, but I am not certain they do. I think that one 
role for chaperones is helping children identify and learn these social 
rules--but chaperones may need to explicitly be cued to do this--we all know 
how difficult that is to accomplish. Also, in some cases, school chaperones 
are not regular museum visitors--they don't know these patterns and are 
uncomfortable in guiding their groups and supporting their experience. Maybe 
a simple way to communicate this would be to tell chaperones that they are 
like the liscenced driver in the car with someone with a learner's permit.

Exhibit design that plans for multiple stations and multiple groups to 
interact also seem a useful strategy.

But again, I also remember field trips as one of the first times I was "let 
go" on my own with friends in public areas. (Sort of like taking the car out 
with my friends on my own after I got my drivers liscense.) These are rites 
of passage, and they are important for children. I agree with Lynn that 
marketing times which are family and adult friendly (without large numbers 
of school groups) is a great idea.

Carey

Carey E. Tisdal
Tisdal Consulting
4475 West Pine Blvd., #1705
St. Louis, MO 63108
Phone: 314-531-9766
Cell: 314-496-9097
Email: [log in to unmask]

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